Making Toys

Paper automata projects 1 and 2

For my first paper automata, I wanted to adapt one of the models from the book to have my own creature on top. I used the kangaroo base that had a circular motion causing the kangaroo to appear to hop forward and up and down. There was also a secondary movement created by attaching the kangaroo’s “hips” to the base so that they would move differently than the rest of the body. I adapted this form and made a cardboard eagle that would move back and and forward but I attached two struts to the wings and the base that made the wings appear to flap up and down, as shown in the video below.

My second automata project was a bit more ambitious and only a moderate success. I decided to make not only the caricature myself, but I also wanted to make the mechanical linkages from scratch. I wanted to make a gun turret that would appear to have the cannon cylinders move in and outward. I 3D printed 4 gears and two crankshafts that would allow me to get motion from the continuous rotation servo onto two different axes. Pictures below show the inner workings of the turret. The servo is connected to the white drive gear while the red gear transfers the rotational motion to the other two white gears attached to the red crankshafts which in turn push the pisons, i.e. cannon shafts in and out of the turret body.