Who does Duncan represent?
Thursday, August 08, 2019
Duncan is the "mascot" for DeltaV, a computer control system manufactured by Emerson Process Management, Austin, TX.  Duncan is a little animated figure that appears on a number of different computer screens for the control system, and also appears in brochures and DeltaV merchandise.
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Duncan
Thursday, August 08, 2019
Frequently Asked Questions and Facts for Duncan
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Who built Duncan?
Thursday, August 08, 2019
Duncan was built by Bob Found, an employee of Spartan Controls in Calgary, Alberta Canada.  Spartan Controls is a representative of Emerson Process Management  in Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia.   Spartan Controls sells and services Delta V products and other process control equipment.
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Why did you build him?
Thursday, August 08, 2019
Because it looked so easy!  Really.  When I built Bunzilla, the Energizer robot, I thought the same thing: easy to build, why not build it?  Duncan was easier to build, but all he does is walk and talk; no drum to beat or feet to move up and down.
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How long did it take you?
Thursday, August 08, 2019
About 3 months, working weekends and most evenings
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How much did it cost?
Thursday, August 08, 2019
About $200.  The biggest cost was the motor drive which I bought new in the form of a 4x4 radio-controlled truck.  Unlike Bunzilla, I didn't need any amplification for the motors because my design goal was to keep the entire unit as light as possible.   The other $100 was spent on liquid rubber for the yellow bands and red hat.
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.It talks?
Thursday, August 08, 2019
Yes.  He says things like "Hi, I'm Duncan the mascot for Delta V, the best control-system in the world", and other messages deemed appropriate for different situations.  The sound is triggered by a "people-detector" located between his eyes.
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How Duncan was Built - the details
Thursday, August 08, 2019
Having created a previous robot that was built from the ground-up, it was decided to save time and effort by purchasing the motor-drive so a radio-controlled monster truck was purchased from Radio Shack for the purpose. The body panels and all excess materials were removed and a sheet-metal base plate and skirt were riveted onto the truck base that held the wheels.

The main body is made of pipe insulation metal sheeting and all joints are joined by aluminum rivets, in order to save weight. The head-dress, which represents a valve-wheel was patterned on a real same-size steel wheel that weighed over 10 lbs! The one on Duncan was carved from a block of Styrofoam and painted with 4-5 coats of liquid rubber paint.

The spiral arms were salvaged from the suction hose of a mini-computer tape backup system, the wrists from a toy robot, and the hands were carved from Styrofoam. The fingers are aluminum cigar tubes. The hands were also painted with 4-5 coats of liquid rubber. The arms are joined to the body using spacers from a computer hard disk.

The antenna for the radio receiver was inside the metal body. Since the body acted like a Faraday shield, preventing the radio signals from getting through, the antenna was connected to the outside metal, so that the entire body is the antenna.

The eye sockets are old jar lids, the "eye-balls" were created in Coreldraw. All dimensions were scaled according to a picture downloaded from a sales CD that featured Duncan.

I gave Duncan a voice by purchasing a surplus electronic "memo-taker" and modifying the contents for the robot. The push-button switch was removed and replaced with a relay that was driven by an infra-red "people-detector". When Duncan approaches a person, the voice chip on the circuit board gets triggered and speaks a modifiable message. I had to build an audio amplifier from scratch, to amplify the voice output. My previous robot, Bunzilla used a Radio Shack sound chip that cost $25, for which I had to build a circuit board; the memo-taker for Duncan cost me $7.00!

The drive battery is used only for the motor-drive, an additional battery is used for the people-detector, sound chip and amplifier. This battery was removed from an old portable VCR. The people-detector is a familiar IR detector used for security systems. I modified it's 110 volt AC circuitry for 12 volt DC operation.

The hardest part of making this robot? Trying to get the rubber paint to go on smoothly! The paint would dry so fast that it was impossible to apply it without ridges and bumps, even after diluting the paint.

I brought the robot to work and had it meet my boss and some customers and hope to use it for trade shows advertising the Delta V product.
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