Cyberbeetle
Album
The Chalcosoma atlas beetles in the insect box scans served as the original inspiration for the project, in particular one gorgeous individual highlighted in the scan. -- CC BY / Museum für Naturkunde Berlin
After little bit of photoshopping, the beauty of the Atlas beetle became even more evident. He looks like from a sci-fi movie, which inspired to turn him into a robotic beetle. -- CC BY / Museum für Naturkunde Berlin
An early sketch of the Cyberbeetle. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä
The robot building began by glueing a print of the beetle picture on black plastic and cutting it to the right shape. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä
Holes needed to be also drilled for the LED eyes. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä
The LED eyes in progress. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä
Mini-Arduinos were suitable for the Cyberbeetle project due to their small size. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä
Perfboard being made for a mini-Arduino, trying to fit all the electronics into small space. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä
The beetle got a little IR receiver on the tip of his horn, and four IR LEDs were placed in the insect box so that the Cyberbeetle could communicate with his home theater. The IR communication parts were rescued from a broken, old media player donated by our friend. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä
IR signal testing. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä
Chargeable batteries from a broken cordless drill became the life force of the Cyberbeetle. They were also given appropriate look and feel with a permanent pen. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä
Can all the parts really fit on the beetle? -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä
Yes! The Cyberbeetle is alive, ready to rock with a speaker, Arduino Nano and a voltage meter on his back. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä
The beetle has three micro servos attached to his belly, one for each pair of legs. The crawling movement is achieved by tilting the body with the middle servo while the other servos turn and push the beetle forward. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä
Cyberbeetle schematic and perfboard design. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä
Measuring and sawing wood for the insect box. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä
Making a 'glass' cover for the box from plastic. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä
Attaching the hinges for the little doors in the bottom of the insect box. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä
Finishing touch with some wax lacquer. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä
The Cyberbeetle inhabiting his new box. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä
The doors for the media compartment can be found in the bottom of the box. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä
Home theater is open and Cyberbeetle is enjoying the music video. The beetle is normally quite grumpy but an IR signal from the box makes it dance when the music video is playing. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä
The inside electronics of the insect box: a digital photo frame that plays video, small speaker, Funduino, IR LEDs and a lot of wires. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä
A close-up of the IR LED compartment. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä
Insect box schematic and perfboard design. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä
The animation elements in the music video were cut out from openly licensed insect box scans and plant pictures. Some electronics components were also added for the style. -- CC BY-SA / Botanischer Garten & Botanisches Museum Berlin-Dahlem & Museum für Naturkunde Berlin
The Cyberbeetle has also a little booklet with project info and the credits for the open content used in the project. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä
The Cyberbeetle was ultimately also scanned by the Museum für Naturkunde with their custom, hi-res beetle scanner so that he could return to his roots in the beetle archive. So if you need a 18220 × 15602 pixels version of this image, just let me know! / CC BY Museum für Naturkunde
