GradCap-01 and -02

Written on June 2nd , 2022 by Michael Suguitan

I made robotic graduation caps for both my undergraduate and graduate ceremonies.

Undergrad (01)

The undergraduate cap (01) sweeps the tassel back-and-forth with a TowerPro SG90 micro servo. The servo is controlled by an ATTiny, essentially a small-scale Arduino. The cap is controlled by a wireless transmitter-receiver system harvested from a remote control car. Pressing the button on the transmitter actuates the tassel.

Graduate (02)

The graduate cap (02) is closer to an actual ‘robot,’ and is based on the Blossom platform. 02 uses Dynamixel XL-320s and has two degrees of freedom: yaw and pitch. Like Blossom, the motors are controlled with a Raspberry Pi and Dynamixel motor controller. On the end of the tassel is a USB webcam for computer vision. The camera provides a video feed to the Pi, which uses TensorFlow through a Coral edge TPU to do face avoidance. Why face avoidance? The cap, due to the loss of its original tassel-turning purpose (graduate ceremonies do not do the ceremonial ‘turning of the tassel,’ which, I’ve later found out, is a foreign idea to many countries outside of America), is going through an existential crisis that results in its avoidance of people. However, using a phone application to control the motors, one can make the cap literally ‘go through the motions.’