CON-E

Conical Ocular and Navigation - Explorer

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Inspiration

What if traffic cones weren’t just passive objects—but helpful, autonomous teammates? Enter CON-E: a cute, computer vision robotic cone born from a love of expressive robots, a sprinkle of social commentary, and a deep appreciation for those unsung heroes of the roadside—traffic cones. What if they could move, assist... think?

What it does

CON-E is your new favorite roadside companion. It moves around using computer vision and a 2-wheel drive system, plays audio, and flashes its LED based on its mood and state. CON-E's state and camera logic tracks the color orange (like other cones and construction vests) and follows them like a loyal puppy—if puppies were made of plastic.

How we built it

CON-E lives inside a real traffic cone. We gave it a custom 3D printed base plate, a Raspberry Pi 4 brain, and an ESP32-S3 sidekick. It drives with DC motors, views the world with a webcam, speaks with a DFPlayer Mini and speaker combo, and expresses itself through an RGB LED. Its power is provided by a 9V battery and a USB power bank. Internal wiring was a game of high-stakes Tetris, involving hot glue, custom 3D printing, electrical tape, and a lot of "wait, where did that wire go?"

Challenges we ran into

We fried our initial DFPlayer Mini (RIP), got betrayed by stripped motor driver screws, and had to resolder things... REPEATEDLY. One teammate sacrificed a finger to the gods of electrical tape (Sorry Morgan). Sleep was optional. Managing all the wiring inside the cone felt like trying to build IKEA furniture in a shoe box. On top of all that, tuning computer vision thresholds became our new least favorite activity.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We learned new tools, soldered without burning down the building, and actually got CON-E to follow us around. Some of us had never met before this week and we learned to work together seamlessly. Our most treasured accomplishment was absolutely hearing CON-E play the macOS startup sound after 36 hours of hard work! Chef’s kiss.

What we learned

Teamwork makes the dream work. Some of us had minimal experience with Git--which is a monster on its own. We tackled new libraries, software and hardware, and flexed our 3D printing skills under strict spatial constraints. We also learned that sleep deprivation unlocks both hallucinations and surprising levels of productivity.

What's next for CON-E

This is just the beginning. CON-E is a prototype. The alpha. The chosen cone. Soon, there will be more—an entire cone army ready to follow construction workers, participate in parades, or vibe in a parking lot. We're thinking cone swarms, omnidirectional wheels, voice control, AI and ML integration, an LCD screen, and a user app to command the fleet. Beware. The cones are coming.

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