Did an exhibit of my projects at a local fair recently, I would occasionally take Carry into the crowd and people could talk to SPUD: she responded to pre-programmed questions and respond with her onboard LLM if she didn't recognize the question leading to some rather silly interactions. I had fun asking the crowd for characters to ask SPUD to identify. Someone asked SPUD if she would be his girlfriend and she turned him down in a rather amusing robot-y way. She said "the question 'would you be my girlfriend' is a phrase used where a man is romantically interested in a woman" (I told the model to be a helpful assistant but it can do personalities as well if you prompt it right, Ollama using a wizard 2.7b uncensored if I remember right)
I learned the following:
1) Folks really like SPUD
2) Folks expected Carry to talk
3) Folks wondered if SPUD could walk.
4) Some folks refused to read instructions and were confused/upset when SPUD wouldn't respond.
5) Kids like pressing big buttons (good thing I used prefab heavily durable ones!)
6) Never trust the current rating on a chinese motor controller.
7) "Clanker" has entered the youths vocabulary as a slang, which is impressive as my region is usually like 10 years behind socially.
So I'll be doing the following from least to most complex:
1) A dynamically changing screen for SPUD. A cartoon of her listening, not listening, speaking and thinking to indicate visually what the robot is doing.
2) A deployment of Pringle onto Carry modified for only the eyes.
3) Repurposing the BUD walking mechanism into a bipedal leg design. Similar to an old clawfoot toy walking mechanism (pic rel), but instead I'll have some asmc-04bs in the ankles/hips to swing SPUD's mass from side to side. Currently working on a big version (not robowaifu related) I'll scale down if it works out well.