Recently in RL Creativity Category

Just a little something I am working on from time to time. I figured after my animatronic modification of the T-Rex toy I could try something bigger. So I was planning on making a papercraft model with a basic animatronic rigg inside. This is a picture from the concept phase, where I am just trying to see how many degrees of motion I need and where I need to place them.
Using the same LipSynch animation I used for the toy I found that a tongue almost makes up for lips that cannot move.
I am not sure if this picture has the same effect on you, maybe it only works in the context of the animation but the way the upper part of his tongue is raised gave me shivers. I wanted to share that feeling.



Now I just gotta start the actual design phase.

To solve the problem with the shot leg servo I replaced the electronics of the servo with that of another one and successfully installed a ball bearing in each leg.



They now work as well as can be expected given the servos low power and resolution, but its better than not moving at all. Still, I feel like I have shifted the role of the "worst working part" to the arms, as they still shudder around quite a bit as they move. So I tried to calm them down a bit by putting some pauses for them into the animation. The result however does not look much better as they now appear to be moving too little.



Overall however I am very happy with having achieved motor function in this nice toy and I am looking forward to be working very closely with him.. in private.
In general this experience has teached me that it is just not economical for me to use Servos in large scale models, at least not in major leverage situations like neck, arms and legs. I may just have to start working with pneumatics or rather a cable pull system with step motors. High Power servos of the Tier I would need go well into the 3 digits and the amperage needed just to hold a paper head up is almost creepy.

I have put the T-Rex Toy back together and tested out function of the servos. They are moving as expected, but unfortunately the friction in the leg-joints is causing the whole legs to move erratically.
It was either the friction or a protocol error during testing, but one of the leg servos blew. So next step would be to completely cut out the legs and replace the plastic on plastic friction joint with a ball bearing. I didn't want to do this unless its necessary and apparently I have no choice, I will need to replace the servo anyway so I might as well.
The jaw movement is promising, I took an animation I was planning to use on a bigger jaw and tried it out with this one.. the leg movement helped give the whole model live until one of them died, but its still nice to see some movement at all. It was however rather frustrating trying to get the serial protocol timing to sync up with the sound, apparently I will need to find or program a tool that will allow me to send out telegrams with an exact timing.
So anyway here is a picture and video of what he looks like when singing.

About two weeks ago I had the idea of taking one of my T-Rex toys to upgrade it to a more agile piece. Since then I ordered 3 different sets of Servos and some Taxidermy glass eyes. It has been a while since I put so much time into a project without drifting of to do other things and I am pretty happy with the results so far. The original Toy has this button on its back.. and when you press it the leverage will cause the arms and jaw to move. Also the eyes light up green and he screams like Godzilla.

Original Toy: