The Handshake Gorilla – Arduino workshop kit

When you squeeze the gorillas hand, he responds by shaking hands with you. The Handshake Gorilla is a design for beginner level Arduino workshops. FabLab Manchester asked me to give a workshop on making interactive products with Arduino, so I thought it would be nice with a playful design.

The design features a simple touch sensor, a servo powered arm and a gorilla puppet. The gorilla can be cut out by hand or with a laser cutter. The design is suitable for expanding with more advanced sensors and new animal shapes.

Here is the arduino code:

#include <Servo.h>

Servo myservo;  // create servo object to control a servo

const int triggerCable = 2;     // the cinnection port (digital in this case) for the trigger cable

int triggerState = 0;         // variable for reading the status of the trigger cables (connected or not)

int armUp = 90;       //rotation degree of the servo when the arm is up
int armMid = 45;      //standard position for when the arm is moving
int armDown = 0;      //rotation degree of the servo when the arm is down
int armPause = 800;   //the time we allow the servo to rech the instructed position

void setup() {

pinMode(triggerCable, INPUT);   // initialize the trigger cable pin as an input:
myservo.attach(9);              // attaches the servo on pin 9 to the servo object
}

void loop(){
// read the state of the trigger cable value:
triggerState = digitalRead(triggerCable);

// check if the pushbutton is pressed.
// if it is, the triggerState is HIGH:
if (triggerState == HIGH) {
// turn LED on:
myservo.write(armDown);   // tell servo to go to armDown position
delay(armPause);        // tells the program to wait as longs as specified in “armPause”, gives the servo time to reach the defined position

myservo.write(armUp);   // tell servo to go to armUp position
delay(armPause);        // tells the program to wait as longs as specified in “armPause”, gives the servo time to reach the defined position
}
else {
// turn LED off:
myservo.write(armMid);   // tell servo to go to armMid position
}
}