Scientific Truth Proclaimers
Album

The Scientific Truth Proclaimers are self-driving robots, which broadcast scientific messages while driving. For the workshop, we built one, simple example robot, which you can see here. / CC BY Niklas Roy & Kati Hyyppä

Toy excavators provided the basis for the robots. We took just the lower part of the excavators including two DC motors. / CC BY Niklas Roy & Kati Hyyppä

We built the robots by dividing different tasks among the participants. The soldering group started by connecting an Arduino Nano to a dual H-bridge motor driver board and to an ultrasonic proximity sensor. / CC BY Niklas Roy & Kati Hyyppä

Meanwhile, a second group of participants disassembled megaphones, so that they could be connected to an mp3 player. / CC BY Niklas Roy & Kati Hyyppä

Lastly, the third group worked on modifying the battery holders of the excavators, so that the needed voltages could be provided for the electronics. / CC BY Niklas Roy & Kati Hyyppä

All the wires were ultimately connected together in order to finish the circuit. / CC BY Niklas Roy & Kati Hyyppä

The next step was to figure out how to mount the electronics on the lower part of the excavator. Having as light structures as possible was important not to overload the robot. / CC BY Niklas Roy & Kati Hyyppä

Three teams worked on three different robots, defining the theme and style of their vehicle. / CC BY Niklas Roy & Kati Hyyppä

Making support structures for the electronics. / CC BY Niklas Roy & Kati Hyyppä

The basics are ready. / CC BY Niklas Roy & Kati Hyyppä

Each robot had its own soundtrack, which was played via the mp3 player attached to the megaphone. Here the first results are being listened to. / CC BY Niklas Roy & Kati Hyyppä

We dragged a big suitcase from Berlin to Moscow full of decoration materials. As we were not so keen on dragging this stuff back, we encouraged the participants to go crazy with their decorations. / CC BY Niklas Roy & Kati Hyyppä

Planning the style of the robot. / CC BY Niklas Roy & Kati Hyyppä

Making detailed parts for the decoration, namely, coloring toothpicks. / CC BY Niklas Roy & Kati Hyyppä

A molecular structure emerging from styrofoam. / CC BY Niklas Roy & Kati Hyyppä

Having more than one pair of hands was helpful. / CC BY Niklas Roy & Kati Hyyppä

The strerile white molecular robot is nearly finished. / CC BY Niklas Roy & Kati Hyyppä

Team punk discussing what kind of glitter cardboard would suit their robot best. / CC BY Niklas Roy & Kati Hyyppä

It was not easy to decide which decorative items to include on the robot, as there were so many possibilities. / CC BY Niklas Roy & Kati Hyyppä

Ultimately, an antenna-like structure appeared for the punk robot. / CC BY Niklas Roy & Kati Hyyppä

The punk robot and the molecular robots ready to go. / CC BY Niklas Roy & Kati Hyyppä

The black hole robot needed some coloring in the form of black tape. / CC BY Niklas Roy & Kati Hyyppä

Figuring out the style. / CC BY Niklas Roy & Kati Hyyppä

The black hole robot is complete. / CC BY Niklas Roy & Kati Hyyppä

Test drive. / CC BY Niklas Roy & Kati Hyyppä

Niklas and I also modified our example robot so that it was ultimately promoting hydrogen. / Photo by the festival photographer Maksim Emelianov

Team hats gave the final touch to the amazing team work. Here's team black hole with Anna, Valerii and Andre. / CC BY Niklas Roy & Kati Hyyppä

Punk team's Katya and Alberto, missing one participant, Sergei. / CC BY Niklas Roy & Kati Hyyppä

Only Vladislav was left of the molecular team at this point. The missing members are Diana, Kostia and Andrei. / CC BY Niklas Roy & Kati Hyyppä

Presenting to robots to the curious festival crowd. / Photo by the festival photographer Maksim Emelianov

Instant social media fame for the black hole robot. / Photo by the festival photographer Maksim Emelianov

Punk robot punking around. / Photo by the festival photographer Maksim Emelianov