Robot Cake Moves Under App Control
This electro-confectionary design lets you have your cake and drive it, too.
When your toddler wants a robot cake for his or her birthday, the standard answer would be to make one that’s decorated and or shaped like a new mechanical friend friend. To take things to the next level, The Crafty Robot decided to make a robot-shaped cake that can actually move around on a flat surface!
This brilliant idea meant 3D printing a cake-sized base, on which the edible portion could be placed. Inside, two gearmotors provide for differential movement and steering, along with a marble for balance. A Smartibot board used to control the mobile robo-cake via a smartphone app.
Circular layers of actual edible cake were stacked on top of the mechanical portion, along with a rectangular head portion and 3 candles, and other decorations. While no one would want to eat the printed base itself, icing was employed to create a sort of confectionary facade, allowing the ‘bot to look entirely edible. Chocolate arms were also implemented with the help of a 3D-printed mold.
The 3D-printed cake base design is available here, and Smartibot hardware is up on this page. One could see other hardware and software implementations used for such a device as well. Perhaps the next emerging technology trend will be “IoC” – the Internet of Cakes!