First, I had to know:

A. What I had to work with in my house and kit,

B. What are some things that I think would be cool for my robot to do,

C. What problems come with these things.

D. How I could express emotions with my bot.

Process of building my robot:

This is some examples of random shapes expressing human emotions like I want my robot to do.

Hostility/Anger

Sadness

Love

Some ideas for Smiley:

A. Smiley will move forward in light, and stop moving in dark. She will have three wheels, almost like a tricycle to balance, and when she senses a certain amount of light, her two front wheels will move and carry her forward. In the dark she will be looking sad, but when you bring her into the light she will smile.

B. Design B has Smiley doing two different things depending if she is in the light or dark. When she is in the light, she will wave and smile a tiny smile, but in the dark an LED light will flash on and off and she will dance/move around her wheels and arms and she will be wearing a larger grin.

C. On Smiley's body, there will be a yes and a no button, and when you click the yes button, she will nod twice and smile (using the same type of panel), but when you click the no button, she will shake her head back and forth and pout.

I chose Design B! My precedent was a LEGO Mindstorms creation my brother made.

These are my sketches and prototypes:

Final Sketch

This is my final mechanism that I used to have my robot twist back and forth to dance.