General Concept and Direction

We settled on pursuing the tactile worlds project, but significantly changing the form, while keeping the basic interactions the same.

The project still consist of two joysticks (now technically cranks rather than joysticks), but now each user is controlling one leg of a two legged robot that navigates a sandbox. The users are given free range to play in the sandbox with the robot, but they need to coordinate and communicate to achieve something with the robot.

Each crank provides physical feedback by way of a motor in the controller so the user is able to feel the forces being exerted on their respective leg. This gives each user the ability to feel the world the robot is interacting with, and to give them a tactile experience in addition to the experience of collaborating to make the robot move.

A potential design for the form of the robot. Each leg is controlled by a different person with a different controller.
A potential design for the form of the controller. The crank in the controller directly corresponds to the movement of the motor driving the leg of the same color.
Two people driving the robot up a hill in a sandbox.
Note that the handle on one of the controllers should be red, not blue.

Robot and Joystick Forms

We experimented a bit with different potential forms for the robot bodies and legs, and for the controllers.

We came up with a couple different body forms that might interact differently with the sand as the legs drag the body through the sand. We also experimented with different leg shapes that might interact with the sand in different ways with regards to grip and motion.

A couple body prototypes with different leg attachments

For controllers, we looked at a couple different commonplace interactions people have with rotational controllers. We ended up coming up with three different reference points: analog knobs found in things like sound systems, the winding mechanism in a fishing rod, and the large, floor-mounted crank found on machining equipment.

different controller designs based on common interactions. From left to right: controller based on an analog control knob, controller based on the winding mechanism of a fishing rod, ground-mounted controller based on the cranks found on machining equipment