ESP32 Creature Control Board

According to redditor harryiliffe, he’s been “developing, refining, and implementing techniques to make robots more life-like.” As shown here, these robots take the form of some sort of strange conglomeration of a sea creature, something from science fiction, and a scarf that your grandma (or you) knitted. The result looks nothing like a human, but somehow still seems to straddle that uncanny valley where robots that are too lifelike tend to make us a little nervous. If nothing else, it’s an interesting example of physical design that you might get a few ideas from.

Inside its cloth “shell,” the egg-shaped Creature Control Board houses an ESP32 module, along with ICs to facilitate capacitive touch and gyroscopic and accelerometer sensing, along with an amplifier, and LiPo charging circuit. The PCB design for the board can be found here, and includes a variety of headers and connectors that could be useful in a variety of projects.

Interestingly, the inside of these creatures, labeled as “embryos,” look even more sea creature-like than the "older" knitted versions, featuring glowing lighting and a translucent shell. The robotic creatures can reportedly feel through their textile skin, allowing them to “understand how they are being held or stroked,” and its human minder can "feel their tentacles squirm and their heartbeat pulse." It's a neat and well-developed design, but whether you find it endearing or somewhere on the opposite end of the spectrum is probably a matter of personal taste.