Awesome walking paper robot uses rubber band for power source

First of all: this thing is SO awesome.

The making of this amazing walking bipedal robot is documented in a rapid series of photographs strung into a video. The robot is made almost exclusively of paper, with the exception of some wooden shafts and an elastic band which serves as the power source.

I wonder if the design is based on (or at least inspired by) one of the many tin toy wind-up walking robot designs. It would be nice if I could read the site. Perhaps I will try Google Translate a bit later.

The gears look like they are solid, as if perhaps made up of many sheets of paper glued together in a thick stack. You can spot a crown gear in there if you watch closely. There are some really ingenious construction techniques. This is worth viewing more than once. I think I want to try working in paper sometime soon.

There are PDF files available for download on the site and they may be plans. I haven't had time to explore them yet. If any of the good readers of The Automata Blog finds out what we are dealing with here, please post a comment or drop me a line. Thanks in advance for your help!

See more amazing mechanical paper models on the creator's web site (in Japanese).

[ Thanks Denise! ]

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Two-legged walking robot toy moves via shape-memory alloy

I was introduced to robotics and shape-memory alloys when I bought the book Stiquito for Beginners: An Introduction to Robotics and made the small hexapod robot that comes with the book as a kit. The clever little two-legged inchworm robot shown here is powered by the same Muscle Wire, also known as Nitinol. Nitinol is nickle/titanium allow that will return to a pre-defined shape when brought to specific temperatures. Heat from an electrical current causes it to contract, making this little inchworm take tiny steps. Though the Stiquito was fun to make, this robot looks like an even better introduction because the design is simple, robust, and moves along a bit better.

From the Inchworm Robot description:

Each BioMetal Fiber Walking Robot Inchworm has one strand of BioMetal Fiber. When current is applied, the fiber heats up and contracts. This pulls the Inchworm's feet apart. When the current is stopped, the fiber cools and expands. Add a little grippy fabric on the bottom of each foot and the spring to return it to its original position, and you can easily see how the little inchworm can walk along most non-slick surfaces.

Here is where you can get your own BioMetal Fiber Walking Robot Inchworm. Here are some items for those interested in Stiquito robots. The basic Stiquito (as shown on the book cover, right) is controlled manually like the Inchworm. You have to push the button to provide the electrical current that causes the muscle wire to contract. The newer Stiquito book uses a microcontroller to provide the current automatically for a more autonomous robot.

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Giant human automaton from 1900...or is it?

Here's an interesting link to a newspaper article from the New York Herald, Sept. 9th, 1900 about a large human automaton. Or...at least what is being presented as one!

Invented by Louis Philip Perew of Tonawand, New York, the automaton in the article is reported to be 7 feet 5 inches tall and capable of walking, running, moving its eyes, avoiding obstacles, and talking.

For a very complete picture of just what was really going on, I suggest you to click on over to this great article at Cyberneticzoo.com about Perew's Electric Man.

As the 1910 patent drawings show, the 'automaton' was actually pushed by the engine-powered carriage behind it. A hidden shaft supplied the power for the figure's walking-motion mechanism.

Cleverly concealed controls within the carriage allowed the passenger to direct the figure and its various motions. While it may not have been exactly what was reported in 1900 the newspaper article, Perew's mechanical man was still a work of considerable genius -- both for the engineering and the showmanship.

Designed to be a advertising device, the mechanical man had some measure of success. It was copied later on in the form of a similar carriage-pulling figure known as 'Big Chris'. The large version also eventually inspired Perew to apply for a patent for a toy version, which was granted in 1927. In the toy version, the carriage is located in front and pulls the figure along.

[ Thanks Don! ]

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