A robot arm that recognizes your face

The earliest commercial robots, like those used in factories for assembly, weren’t intelligent at all — they simply moved motors in sequence according to pre-programmed commands. But today we can build sophisticated robots that respond to their environment and even people. More importantly, that is possible on a modest budget with off-the-shelf parts. Luca Di Lorenzo (AKA LucaDilo) proved that by using an Arduino® UNO™ Q to create a robot arm that detects faces and acts accordingly.

In this case, the robot arm reacts to seeing a person’s face by picking up a pen and handing it to them. That is only moderately useful, but it is really just a demonstration of the hardware and capability. It shows that the robot can see what is around it and act accordingly. 

LucaDilo was able to achieve that with very affordable and accessible hardware, starting with an UNO Q. Not only does that direct the robot arm’s Feetech serial servo motors with its microcontroller, but it also performs facial recognition on the Linux side with a USB webcam. An optional Modulino™ LED Matrix provides status, feedback, and a dash of charm.

The structure and mechanical parts of the robot arm are all 3D-printable, even including the gripper mechanism.

LucaDilo programmed the arm so that upon startup, it enters into a setup mode. In that mode, the user can physically move the arm to a desired home position and up to nine different pen slot positions. After that, the robot will know where to move to pick up a pen when it sees a face.

The total build cost for this robot should be under $100/€85, which is pretty incredible when you consider how much computational power goes into just recognizing a face.