Rosie the Red Robot

Sometimes robots get all lonely crunching through bits and bytes on their own.  And humans are just so boring, and predictable.  Robots can't learn a whole lot about the universe from people, when all they want to do is watch TV all day, and talk rubbish.  And talk about the weather.  No.  Robots need to talk to other clever robots to become infinitely more wise.  To take over the world.  That's why computers need to be able to communicate with other computers in a language they can all understand. This way, Rosie Patrol too can share GPS coordinates of evil masterminds with other robots in the neighbourhood.  Or ask mission critical questions like just how many Fast and Furious films have there been ? A method that enables programs to chat to each other is often called Application Programming Interface (API) .  Using APIs, useful parts of your application can be accessed by others. And, likewise, you can access other people's...

There is an unspoken rule in robotics that is considerably more important than Ohm's Law : all robots need eyes (apparently).  Just, don't question it.  Why (...we said don't )?  Because they need to let humans know how they are feeling.  That they are happy, or that they are tired of all the meaningless tasks they've been given to do, and need a recharge - quite literally.  But more importantly, they need to look super cute when they are taking over the world.  Or look like they are keeping a watchful eye on delinquents using some wandering LED eyeballs... whether or not any of their other tools are actually doing something useful is utterly irrelevant. After all, in the human world, it's all about perception. In a way, building the neck and face for Rosie Patrol using servo motors got us part way there.  We now have a semi-trustable superhero that doesn't look too alien in our house.  But we don't want Rosie Patrol to fail a medica...

Things are about to take a very bizarre turn (at some improbable angles).  Why?  For no other reason than: because it can .  But we'll try our best to explain our thinking.  You see, our plan is to make our superhero more lovable.  More approachable.  Because us humans - we have a long history of not being understanding of things that we've never come across before.  We are suspicious of others that don't look like us.  That don't act like us.  We fear the unknown.  And a plastic box with wheels, sensors and a light... just isn't going to be very trustable.  Even if it has a cute and harmless name like Rosie. Clearly we should do something about this.  And quite frankly, we have no better ideas than to give Rosie Patrol a... face.  Because robots with faces; they can just blend in.  Like a new member of our extended family. Additionally, logic dictates that for robots to have a human-like face, they need to ...

Welcome to the robot version of the Justice League.  Where Rosie will team up against a band of baddies, and in general, bring much needed calm and order to the world.  Justice for precisely what , you ask?  Actually, we don't quite know.  But as we now have a logo, let's pretend that this is all for a righteous cause. So far, our greatest creation has been a... (semi)-autonomous moving plastic box .  Good for carrying a basket of fruits.  However, not so good at defeating fruit cakes , intent on taking over the world. The master plan?  As with all good plans to defend all that's precious to humanity ( Guardians of the Samsung Galaxy ) it begins with the requisition of more random kit that we can attach to our Pi.  Then, some equally random Python code to make use of those gizmos.  Yes, we'll battle unpleasant invaders one if statement at a time, and scare them away with more bits of electronics than you'd find in your loc...