Topic: tin man robot

[piersdad]

it started out as a mannequin for my wife to teach nurses to dress elderly patients but after her stroke it lay in the workshop for ages.
so i started to rebuild it and cover it with alloy and add mechanical  actions over the years.
a wheel chair motor in the hips area works the legs in a realistic way and then a window screen wiper motor raises and drops the right arm.
the head turns side to side (another wiper motor) and the eyes move back and forth the right index finger curls up in a hand shake and he nods his head.
when some one asks who is controlling it i activate one of the two garage door opening controls hidden in my hand and a light lights up in his tummy and a soft toy pooh bear appears there and a jolly laughter bursts forth.
in all 8 channels all hidden in my hand.
i take it on xmas parades and the kids love it and ask it  "gimme 5" and it raises and drops its had for them.
 

so here he is pooh bear that 'controls him'



with this success in mind i started to build another on i will call eve (cant remember did i use one of tinmans ribs)
the walking mechanics are extremely simple and i have not sen any where the same simple  system.

here is the works
 

so here it is and i am about to build a walking frame for the legs the hips will be able to swivel a little to imitate the real actions of a human walk

 

after all the tin man from the 'Wizard of oz' must now be in his 70s so a walking frame will be ok
 the legs are a copy of my own and are made from jandal rubber with a 11 thou cover of alloy tape used on cool store insulation sealing.

when the frame is finished the legs will be able to amble along pushing the frame and when the top part is finished i hope to radio control it.
and so will be created a new 'Eve'


 just tried the legs out and on 12 volts it SPRINTED off till the power cord snapped   phew  glad it did not have a full battery on board or i may not catch it

the second tin man is nearing completion with twin motors for the leg's and remote control.
had it in a xmas parade and since then have done extensive rebuild of the top with rotating head and arm hand shaking mechanics

tin man
i intend to keep the tummy area clear of machinery so that i can put some sort of puppet in there  pretending to operate the tin man


underneath the puppet platform is the battery - motors and radio control


 
here is the very simple  leg operating mechanics  the main crank is a cycle pedal crank attached to a steel angle bit that moves the leg back forth as well as pulling the n\knee up and down the extended bit  of steel  slows the knee action at a critical time to give the foot action a near perfect ellipse action on the surface and resulting in a very strong simple and positive action