element14 Community
element14 Community
    Register Log In
  • Site
  • Search
  • Log In Register
  • About Us
  • Community Hub
    Community Hub
    • What's New on element14
    • Feedback and Support
    • Benefits of Membership
    • Personal Blogs
    • Members Area
    • Achievement Levels
  • Learn
    Learn
    • Ask an Expert
    • eBooks
    • element14 presents
    • Learning Center
    • Tech Spotlight
    • STEM Academy
    • Webinars, Training and Events
    • Learning Groups
  • Technologies
    Technologies
    • 3D Printing
    • FPGA
    • Industrial Automation
    • Internet of Things
    • Power & Energy
    • Sensors
    • Technology Groups
  • Challenges & Projects
    Challenges & Projects
    • Design Challenges
    • element14 presents Projects
    • Project14
    • Arduino Projects
    • Raspberry Pi Projects
    • Project Groups
  • Products
    Products
    • Arduino
    • Avnet Boards Community
    • Dev Tools
    • Manufacturers
    • Multicomp Pro
    • Product Groups
    • Raspberry Pi
    • RoadTests & Reviews
  • Store
    Store
    • Visit Your Store
    • Choose another store...
      • Europe
      •  Austria (German)
      •  Belgium (Dutch, French)
      •  Bulgaria (Bulgarian)
      •  Czech Republic (Czech)
      •  Denmark (Danish)
      •  Estonia (Estonian)
      •  Finland (Finnish)
      •  France (French)
      •  Germany (German)
      •  Hungary (Hungarian)
      •  Ireland
      •  Israel
      •  Italy (Italian)
      •  Latvia (Latvian)
      •  
      •  Lithuania (Lithuanian)
      •  Netherlands (Dutch)
      •  Norway (Norwegian)
      •  Poland (Polish)
      •  Portugal (Portuguese)
      •  Romania (Romanian)
      •  Russia (Russian)
      •  Slovakia (Slovak)
      •  Slovenia (Slovenian)
      •  Spain (Spanish)
      •  Sweden (Swedish)
      •  Switzerland(German, French)
      •  Turkey (Turkish)
      •  United Kingdom
      • Asia Pacific
      •  Australia
      •  China
      •  Hong Kong
      •  India
      •  Korea (Korean)
      •  Malaysia
      •  New Zealand
      •  Philippines
      •  Singapore
      •  Taiwan
      •  Thailand (Thai)
      • Americas
      •  Brazil (Portuguese)
      •  Canada
      •  Mexico (Spanish)
      •  United States
      Can't find the country/region you're looking for? Visit our export site or find a local distributor.
  • Translate
  • Profile
  • Settings
SciFi Movie Props
  • Challenges & Projects
  • Project14
  • SciFi Movie Props
  • More
  • Cancel
SciFi Movie Props
Blog ThingBot & Wednesday Interview
  • Blog
  • Forum
  • Documents
  • Files
  • Members
  • Mentions
  • Sub-Groups
  • Tags
  • More
  • Cancel
  • New
Join SciFi Movie Props to participate - click to join for free!
  • Share
  • More
  • Cancel
Group Actions
  • Group RSS
  • More
  • Cancel
Engagement
  • Author Author: dougw
  • Date Created: 1 Nov 2023 6:36 AM Date Created
  • Views 1812 views
  • Likes 15 likes
  • Comments 6 comments
  • animatronic hand
  • dougw
  • movie prop
  • Screen2Scream
  • thing
  • scifimoviepropsch
  • thingbot
Related
Recommended

ThingBot & Wednesday Interview

dougw
dougw
1 Nov 2023

Intro

This project was originally inspired by my granddaughter's interest in Wednesday Addams. I thought it might be interesting to build an animatronic "Thing". The main challenge that was of interest to me was how to get at least 2 finger joints to be controlled by a single actuator. The design I came up with can be extended to operate 3 joints from one actuator, but 2 joints are sufficient to prove the concept. I did need to implement all 4 fingers and a thumb to prove that five motors could fit in a hand at the correct angles, but the main objective was getting the finger mechanisms to have the right geometry to work properly.

I also decided to do some voice acting and hand acting to make the project a little more entertaining. This was my first time doing these kinds of  effects so I can't promise stellar results. To make it even tougher, all shots were done in one take and nothing was cut from any of the footage. That is all I had time to do.

image

I should have asked my black cat to pose for this shot....

The Wednesday Interview

You don't have permission to edit metadata of this video.
Edit media
x
image
Upload Preview
image

The Demo

You don't have permission to edit metadata of this video.
Edit media
x
image
Upload Preview
image

The Design & Build

This is one of those projects where it was prudent to test the geometry calculations with some test prints of linkage parts. It took a few tweaks to get the geometry working the way I wanted.

Finger Geometry Explanation

You don't have permission to edit metadata of this video.
Edit media
x
image
Upload Preview
image

3D Printed Hand Parts

You don't have permission to edit metadata of this video.
Edit media
x
image
Upload Preview
image

Discussion

Hands and fingers are very complex shapes and the joints are also very complex. They are not simple hinges. I found it very hard to measure my hands well enough to understand the bone dimensions and even the joint locations. To get a really accurate hand and joint motion model would take many months of work, but I am happy with the animatronic hand I designed and the way it functions. In particular the finger joints work just the way I envisioned at the concept stage. It was great that the small little servo motors had enough power to easily operate the fingers. It was quite disappointing that the motors did not arrive in time to make all fingers work at the same time, especially since they were ordered before the contest officially started. However, it was fun to work through the technical challenges and come up with a workable system. I do have an Arduino and a multi servo driver that can be used to control the whole hand if and when the motors come in.

Doing voice acting, hand acting, writing scripts and choreography for that type of video was new for me, but fun to try.

Links:

The Project14 Contest Details Page

  • Sign in to reply
  • dougw
    dougw over 1 year ago in reply to JWx

    If the motors arrive in time I might squeeze in an update.... Not looking promising though. Disappointed

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up 0 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • More
    • Cancel
  • JWx
    JWx over 1 year ago

    nice! that could be cross-competition project (shared with halloween competition) btw.

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up 0 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • More
    • Cancel
  • genebren
    genebren over 1 year ago in reply to dougw

    Great explanations of the mechanisms that you have designed.  I can only imagine how difficult it was to work out all of the details of this design and you were lucky to have gotten it all to work in the number of printing iterations that it took you.

    Well done!

    I work with a client who designs/prints skulls for Halloween displays.  For full skeletal displays he buys and modifies arms for another vendor.  It would be a huge improvement to his displays if he could also have finger movements to add to the shoulder/elbow movements that he presently has. Maybe I could put you in contact with him and you could see if he would be interested in working with you on some new designs.

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up 0 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • More
    • Cancel
  • dougw
    dougw over 1 year ago in reply to genebren

    I added video trying to explain the mechanism better, but the servos still have not arrived...

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up 0 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • More
    • Cancel
  • robogary
    robogary over 1 year ago

    Gene took the words from my fingertips :-)  very clever deduction and reduction in the # servos. Your design could be used to simplify and enable  alot of halloween animatronics.  

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up 0 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • More
    • Cancel
>
element14 Community

element14 is the first online community specifically for engineers. Connect with your peers and get expert answers to your questions.

  • Members
  • Learn
  • Technologies
  • Challenges & Projects
  • Products
  • Store
  • About Us
  • Feedback & Support
  • FAQs
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Legal and Copyright Notices
  • Sitemap
  • Cookies

An Avnet Company © 2025 Premier Farnell Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Premier Farnell Ltd, registered in England and Wales (no 00876412), registered office: Farnell House, Forge Lane, Leeds LS12 2NE.

ICP 备案号 10220084.

Follow element14

  • X
  • Facebook
  • linkedin
  • YouTube