REI, a robot that loves

REI is the creation my team and I built during a hackathon. 12 hours of work with a single goal: build something that uses sensors to perceive its surroundings and translates that into lights, sound, or motion.

The original idea was for REI to do many things it couldn’t end up doing… but it discovered that its purpose wasn’t defined by what it couldn’t do, but by what it could.

REI could walk, REI could sway. And above all, REI could love.

REI’s brain is an ESP32 DevKit, paired with an LM298N as a driver for its powerful yellow motors. To take action based on hand gestures, REI is equipped with an MPU6050 connected via a slightly-too-long umbilical cord.

It was an incredible experience for both my team and me; we laughed until we were exhausted and powered through 12 hours of hard work just to bring our little REI to life. Although we didn’t win, we were congratulated by many of the participants as well as the judges.

Congratulations to everyone, and I look forward to the next edition.