Published June 30, 2019 © CC BY-NC-SA

Corporate Companion

The ultimate business accessory, a robot companion for all your corporate needs. Including inspirational quotes and buzzwords!

BeginnerFull instructions provided12 hours1,410

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Raspberry Pi 3 Model B

Adafruit Mini External USB Stereo Speaker

MG995

Powerbank

Plastic ornament balls

Felt furniture pads

Spraypaint

Popsicle stick

Tie

Software apps and online services

Raspberry Pi Raspbian

ttsmp3

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Hot glue gun (generic)

Tape, Duct

Story

Overview

Below a quick overview of the content.

Introduction and showcase video
Suitcase
Personality
Movement
Voice
Result

Introduction and showcase video

We’re going to build the ultimate business accessory, a robot companion for all your corporate needs. Including wrongly used inspirational quotes, confusing advice and buzzwords!

Project Video

Suitcase

Every accomplice needs a body, in this case an old suitcase. It has two advantages, it’s plain and professional looking, and there are plenty of cheap ones available in second hand stores!

The original suitcase

Personality

Believe it or not, some personality is required.

A pair of eyes and a nice mustache will do the trick.

We make the eyes out of clear plastic ornament balls.

Spray painting the inside gives them a nice glossy look and adding some felt furniture pads as pupils finishes them off.

Ornament ball

Adding a must-have tie is the cherry on top.

Looking good

Movement

Our buddy should be able to move. A servo is able to move the lid up and down, giving it a very natural, talking look.

Servo

Voice

The final step is giving him a voice. Writing some must have soundbites and using this text-to-speech service leaves us with some very neat mp3s.

All that is left to do is plugging in a USB speaker and setting it as the default audio device.

USB speaker

Result

And there you have it, a corporate friend to give you meaningful advice and help you get through the toughest of meetings!

Internal Electronics

End result

Code

#!/usr/bin/python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import os
import json
import RPi.GPIO as GPIO
import time
from random import randint

servoPIN = 17
GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)
GPIO.setup(servoPIN, GPIO.OUT)

p = GPIO.PWM(servoPIN, 50)  # GPIO 17 for PWM with 50Hz
p.start(2.5)  # Initialization

try:
    while True:

        p.ChangeDutyCycle(4)

        # Collect all the names of the images in out folder and the amount
        names = [name for name in os.listdir('/home/pi/Desktop/corporate/audio')]
        total = len([name for name in os.listdir('/home/pi/Desktop/corporate/audio')])

        # Generate a random number, -1 because our index start at 0
        random = randint(0, total-1)
        print(total)

        # Fetch the name belonging to this random number
        name = '/home/pi/Desktop/corporate/audio/'+names[random]
        print(name)

        #Play the audio
        os.system('mpg123 ' + name)
        time.sleep(0.2)
        p.ChangeDutyCycle(5)
        sleep = randint(10, 60)
        print(sleep)
        time.sleep(5)

except KeyboardInterrupt:

    p.stop()

Corporate Companion

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Story

Overview

Introduction and showcase video

Suitcase

Personality

Movement

Voice

Result

Code

Code

Credits

Comments

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Corporate Companion

Corporate Companion

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Story

Overview

Introduction and showcase video

Suitcase

Personality

Movement

Voice

Result

Code

Code

Credits

Comments

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