My granddaughter and I love robots, and thanks to the Goodwill stores and little free libraries, we have a good supply of books, like the one above "Robots, Robots Everywhere!"

So it only made sense that I should try to put together her own robot. I had a spare Circuit Playground Express, two servos, battery pack,  a jigsaw and a supply of plywood. And this is what we came up with.

Robot Programming

I decided to use MakeCode to program the robot - mainly because it let me use the microphone to trigger on "loud noise". 

Makecode Program

Program has multiple functions:

• LeftArm - moves left arm
• Right - moves right arm
• Smile - plays a tune and  show "white smile" on the neopixels
• Frown - plays a tune and shows "blue frown" on the neopixels
• GoCrazy - sets up a random loop choosing the four functions above at random

The A/B buttons will trigger the Left/Right arm functions. A+B triggers "GoCrazy."

When the switch is set to the left, clapping your hands (or some other loud noise) sets the left and right arms moving. [When I was first testing, the "loud" sensitivity was too sensitive and the noise from the servos  kept it going so it wouldn't stop.]

I wrote another Makecode Circuit Playground program that I could use with another CPX to send commands to the robot. Pushing the A button cycles through 1, 2, 3 and 4 green neopixels showing. Pressing the "B" button transmits the number which the robot uses to choose LeftArm, RightArm, Smile or Frown.

When the switch is set to the right any IR signal from the "controller" CPX will trigger GoCrazy. The same goes for a loud noise.

Future Plans

The fun in using the CPX as the "brain" means reprogramming our robot pal is very easy. I already tweaked it getting it set up, and I expect I'll think of more things - I'm sure my granddaughter will have feedback and suggestions.

And, of course, I expect CircuitPython is in the droid's future - that would let me give it a "voice!"