This robot was made for the Arse Elekronika festival held yearly in San Francisto exploring sex, technology and culture. It consists of a laptop, a microcontroller, and a vibrating dildo.The program itself is written with Arduino and Processing, and the dildo can be switched out for any other. The vibrations correlate directly with real earthquakes around the world. The computer sends information from the US Geological Survey to the microcontroller, acting as the sensor for the robot. Then the microcontroller reads that information and adjusts the power to the vibrator accordingly, which is a very simple planning stage. Finally, the robot 'acts' by vibrating for the allotted time and intensity. Apart from a simple way of creating a pseudo-sexual connection with the earth and nature, Gizmodo morbidly points out that the "only trouble is that when your own "Big One" finally arrives, it's tempered by the realization that a building might have collapsed somewhere... "
Compiled a.out file at /afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr22/nzevallo/public/robotics/hw1/a.out