"CANARY" environmental sensor device.
- Corrugated plastic, electronic elements.
- 3" x 2.5" x 14"


This project, completed in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute, somehow wove togther the disparate strands of robotic art, environmental sensing, community activism, and diy culture, into a little corrugated plastic housing. It was a complicated project, but the results were realized to a degree I had never imagined they could have been. Bear with me, and read on!



The project started with the development of a very specialized circuit board by Robotics Institute engineers, able to sense SOUND, TEMPERATURE, HUMIDITY, BAROMETRIC PRESSURE, and AIR POLLUTION, and output control of 4 SERVO MOTORS, an LED, an LCD SCREEN, and a BUZZER.
This board was developed to capture the imaginations of amateur robotocists, environmentally concerned citizens, and those interested in responsive robotic art.



I was approached by one of the project coordinators to design a housing for the electronics. In the experimental/low-cost/do-it-yourself spirit of the project thusfar, I tried at first to convert existing containers into workable housings, but to no avail. (My complete process of research in that department is documented HERE)

In the end, I developed a corrugated plastic container, which could be cut from a template, and assembled by the user, to keep costs down, and to encourage modification and experimentation.



I created the housing templates, designed instruction sheets for assembly, helped in testing the inputs and outputs of the unit, and co-taught Canary-based seminars around Pittsburgh (under the title Neighborhood Networks) in which participants were encouraged to create robotic sculptures that responded to environmental factors:





Instruction Materials: (.pdf links)