Canoo Rover Station
Category: Industrial design, concept design, team collaboration
Time: 2022 Spring, 14 weeks
Role: Industrial designer - Steven He
UI&UX designer - Gabriella Chen
The project aims to imagine the future of film crew workflow with the help of an EV brand, Canoo. Pubic always appreciate the effort film crew invest in each scene. But there must be a way to improve their creative workflow and reduce the heavy burdens.
" A writer needs a pen, an artist needs a brush, but a filmmaker needs an army"
- Orson Welles
On-site Observation
I was lucky enough to observe the way things work in the "American Got Talent" film crew in Pasadena. Also, I was able to interview some people in a local rental house. To summarize, there are 4 pain points: chaotic, labor-intensive, heavy loaded, and expensive.
Brand & Opportunity
The next decade is for EV. Canoo is one of the pioneers in the off-road EV market. They focus on creating the most utilitarian pick-up trucks & van for American lifestyle. Recently, they are deeply invested by NASA.
.png)
.png)
Hardware Design Opportunity
I was looking for something that deserve a hardware innovation. Based on the research, the production cart, also can be considered as their workstation, seems like something from the 70s, sophisticated, heavy, unsecured and expensive.
PC
Storage Space
Portable Power Station
Titanium + Aluminum Structure
Detachable off-road wheels
Work Space
Arms for
Accessories
Solution
The result is a mobile workstation, an autonomous production cart integrated with high performance features for more organized and effortless workflow.
Experience, moving
Compact and lightweight for moving, configurable for small to large scale film crews. The proportion is designed maximize the storage space, meanwhile maintaining reasonable weight distribution.
Transportation
Capable of conquering tough terrain such as, upward slope in SF, muddy road in forest, or sandy road in dessert...etc.
Workstation
Capable of transitioned into an autonomous workstation, ready to flat-lay parts, setting up equipment and more importantly, it tidies the messy working environment that film makers used to have.
With Canoo rover station, film makers are able to explore different possibilities of film making without being restricted by the hardware limitations!
.jpg)
User will be able to monitor the devices transported to them as well as requesting new devices from PA. Also, the Rover Station comes with IOT and machine learning function.
Feature 1
The 4 arms on the exoskeletons are designed to set up the equipment's such as cameras, laptops, extra monitors...etc. they can also be used as handles to move the cart when it is out of power.
Feature 2
One of the biggest selling points of the cart is the push and pull mechanism, which allows more effortless and intuitive access to equipment.
Feature 3
The always on LED display is used to display some of the essential information such as the remained battery power, the current task and its next task for quick check.
Feature 4
It also come with an integrated power station, which can be also used as an emergency battery when the cart is out of power.
Feature 5
There is a smart lamp come with the monitor, the brightness change based on the environment.
Process
I collaborated with an interaction designer, Gabriella Chen, in this project. Big portion of the collaboration are done via miro, we discussed a lot to make sure the hardware and software design are supportive of each other.
.jpg)
