Kickstarter Update #5

Well, it has been an interesting time here at Project Xceed Xpectations.

As you may remember, or not, when last we updated you about our ongoing effort to kickstart a Kickstarter campaign, we had high hopes of showing you the latest robot-in-a-notebook prototype sketches.

Unfortunately, an argument broke out between the Creative Arts Department and the Impractical Science Department over ideas detailed by the unprofitable Engineering Design Centre.

When you manage a bunch of independent sorts who generate their own income and have no golden handcuffs, cooperation is a funny business.

But why bore you with personnel problems?

The facts are these — we were going to show you how our paper robots were going to be powered by one of three methods: a) tether, b) coin batter(y/ies), and/or c) solar cell.

Then, our buyers down in the Manufacturing Department ran into a small problem of paying our suppliers for the power parts we needed.

Never fear!  Our military veterans on staff came to the rescue.  Turns out they had friends who had connections with unnamed sources in an unmentionable country who could get us an unlimited supply of nuclear-powered energy cells if we’d just give them 51% ownership of the project.

Therefore, we’re in negotiations at this point and cannot with confidence show you our engineering drawings without knowing for sure whether we need to add a radiation shield to protect your loved ones from “batteries” with a half-life longer than your estimated full lives which would be quickly shortened based on the hazmat/MSDS sheets written in Russian Chinese Izbekistanese a nonstandard international language.

Kickstarter Update #4

Robot-in-a-Notebook nears completion!

Today, we had planned to post the complete prototype robot-in-a-notebook for your evaluation and valuable input into the design process.

As you may have read in this or ancillary blogs, our Robot-in-a-Notebook kit will contain the following items:

  • Preprinted images on hard paper with perforated edges, indicating places for cutouts and bends
  • Bottle and/or pen(s) of Bare Conductive
  • Arduino (or its equivalent) and spare parts
  • Instructions for creating paper-based robot toys that walk, flip, flash and lift, just like the robots that you would work with at the Mars Exploration Camp, similar to the actual cybernetic beings that will help us populate Mars!
  • As a bonus, the kit will contain suggestions for taking the play set to the next level, including pointers for buying your own wireless modules and other extensions to make your robots work together, using instructions you give them manually or through a smart app on your phone, tablet or PC.

For now, in order to show you that, just because we’re behind schedule and are working an alternative path around the current schedule bottleneck, we still want you to have fun this weekend, here’s a great tutorial on creating 3D hard paper images using Pepakura.

Have a great weekend!