Ahrens Labs - Spud Robot

Robotics Lab • Computer Vision • Voice

Spud the Friendly Robot Car

Spud is a rolling robot car with a camera that can drive around, ask your name, and later recognize you by your face because you told it who you are.

What Spud Can Do

Spud is built to feel like a curious little robot friend. It can drive around on its wheels, look around with its onboard camera, and talk to you using simple voice prompts.

When Spud first meets you, it can ask questions like “What’s your name?” and remember your answer. It can also ask about your favorite color, animal, food, and number, plus what kinds of things you’re interested in. All of that gets stored so Spud can get to know you better over time.

1 Spud drives around the room and uses its camera to look for people.
2 When it spots a new face, it asks for your name and listens to your answer.
3 Spud links your face to your name and favorite things and saves that information.
4 The next time it recognizes your face, it can say something like “Hi Alex, nice to see you again!” and bring up a topic you said you’re interested in. It can even double-check your favorites later to see if your color, animal, food, or number have changed.

Brains, Camera, and Wheels

Spud is powered by a small computer (like a Raspberry Pi) that runs code to handle driving, camera input, and recognition.

The camera lets Spud “see” the world. Computer vision software turns camera frames into information that Spud can use to find faces and track where people are in front of it.

Motor controllers and sensors help Spud move safely, steer around obstacles, and position itself so it can see you clearly when it wants to talk.

Camera & Vision

Live video from Spud’s camera feeds into face detection and recognition code so it can decide who it’s seeing.

Remembering You

Spud stores your name, favorite color, animal, food, number, and interests so it can greet you personally and bring up things you care about when it sees you again.

Rolling Around

Spud’s motors let it drive forward, turn toward the people it sees, and explore the space like a tiny rover.

Future Ideas

Spud could later learn routes, play games, or respond differently depending on who it recognizes.