Tinguely's Dream, Electro-mechanical Automaton

The Automata / Automaton Blog is pleased to present you with a special sneak preview of Tom Haney's new work. The piece is named Tinguely's Dream after one of his favorite kinetic artist, Jean Tinguely.

The automaton features a figure riding a strange and wonderful bike. As seen in the video above, an electric motor powers 3 non-concentric wheels and gives the bike and its rider a gentle rocking motion. Watch someone riding a bike and you'll appreciate this beautiful subtlety.

Tom Haney is working on similar pieces for an upcoming gallery show at Mason Murer Fine Art in Atlanta. The show opens September 26th, 2008 and runs through November 7th, 2008. He plans to have 10 to 12 electro-mechanical pieces. Most of the pieces will incorporate antique and/or found objects as well as electric lights.

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Coin-Op Fortune Teller Automaton with Film Strip

This coin-operated fortune teller automaton seems to have used a film strip to show a fortune in the "crystal" ball.

My guess is that the mechanism used a Geneva wheel to advance the film one (or some other odd number) of frames. When the film was in place, a small light bulb would probably have lit for a few moments, allowing the viewer to read their fortune.

Here's a tantalizing view of the actual mechanism:
You can see the old battery in the lower right. Hey...are those thread spools on which the film sat? I would love to get a chance to fix this piece up.

Here's the listing on eBay for the fortune teller automaton with answer strip and coin mechanism.

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i-SOBOT: The World's Smallest Humanoid Robot

If you had asked me a few years ago if I would ever own a bipedal humanoid robot, I would have laughed out loud. I was lucky enough to receive this little wonder as a gift last year. Hammacher Schlemmer is selling i-SOBOT for under $200 now.

The i-SOBOT is just 6 1/2" tall and has amazing articulation. The robot is made up of 17 very small servomotors and two gyro-sensors for balance. The 23 points of articulation include the neck, arms, wrists, legs, and feet. One disappointment: no hand or thumb motions. Yet.

i-SOBOT has four modes: manual control, special actions, programmed sequences, and voice command. The robot has 180 preprogrammed individual movements, a 200-word vocabulary, and responds to verbal commands (in voice mode only). The preprogrammed actions are pretty impressive and mostly humor-oriented.

The robot is programmable allowing you to record sequences of moves. Without much in the way of a sensor array, it is more of an automated playback than an autonomous entity. Still, if set up carefully, you can do some pretty fun stuff with this robot.

I think the greatest promise of i-SOBOT lies in what hackers and moders out there will add to this robot. I know some people have started to hack the device. As a platform for humanoid robotics, this has got to be one of the best deals around.

Get more info and see a video of the i-SOBOT at Hammacher Schlemmer. They have the best price currently online.

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Mechancial Toy: Flying Space Marines Duel in Air

This is the kind of mechanical toy I could only dream about as a kid.



From ThinkGeek:
"This Dueling Space Marines Copter Set gets you a set of two mini r/c helicopters with infra-red laser tag style battle action. Take to the air from the palm of your hand then use the shoulder button on the remote unleash a plasma blast your opponent copter. Each shot causes the gun of your space marine to flash with simulated gunfire. The first hit causes your enemy to spin. The second makes the enemy copter lose power... the third cuts rotor power completely as your opponent plummets to the ground and you gloat in victory."

Get a lot more information about the Dueling Space Marines Copter Set at the ThinkGeek site.

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Huge Automaton Clock Sculpture @ London Zoo

Master mechanical artist Tim Hunkin has created a giant automaton clock for the London Zoo. This amazingly complex kinetic sculpture is base on the theme of Victorian Era attitudes towards the animal kingdom.

The artist has a section of his site devoted to the London Zoo Tropical Aviary Clock. The pages show his photos and sketches (he's also known for his cartoons) of the automaton, rejected design ideas, technical aspects of the piece, and various other factors that influenced him along the way.

It is wealth of information, a fascinating look at one kinetic artist's creative process, and very entertaining. The video is a few minutes long, but only because the sequence of the automaton is so elaborate. Well worth it!

Here the page devoted to the London Zoo Tropical Aviary Clock. Here is the page about the design of the clock.

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Animatronic Frankenstein Machine Comes to Life

This elaborate animatronic Frankenstein scene depicts the monster coming to life. Frankenstein's monster shakes violently as he is jolted to life, then he bolts forward unexpectedly. It comes complete with integrated sound and an air compressor to power the monster.

Imagine having this in your house on Halloween! Sadly, not all of us have $7000 to spend on a huge, detailed haunted house prop. Perhaps, though this can serve as inspiration for a small scale automaton or encourage you to make your own animatronic holiday displays.

Visit The Fright Catalog online for this and other animatronic Halloween props.

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Automaton of Man Slowly Flapping Artificial Wings

Here is one of several new pieces by automaton maker Tom Haney. This electric automaton, entitled Alar, features a man slowly flapping the wings strapped to his arms.

You can learn more about the piece and see a video of Alar on Tom Haney's web site.

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Fuel Cell Car and Experiment Kit

This is one of the coolest mechanical toy kits I have ever seen.

During any sunny period, photovoltaic cells perform electrolysis on water, dividing it into its constituent elements -- oxygen and hydrogen. At some later time, you can feed these gases into the fuel cell to get electricity to do work (like power the motor on this little car). The byproduct of all this wizardry is just a bit of water!

Now you can have a fuel cell of your own with which to experiment. This is a big deal. Fuel cells are one of the most promising forms of environmentally-friendly energy on the horizon. Learn more about fuel cells from this article on Fuel Cell Basics.

Go for it, check out The Fuel Cell Car and Experiment Kit

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Steps to Fix Your Broken Portable Power Tools

When a power tool stops working, a broken electrical part is the likely culprit. Don't throw that tool away! Fix it! Better yet, pull one out of someone else's trash and bring it back to life.

Though there is a huge variety of electric power tools, the basic electrical components -- cords, switches and brushes -- are similar regardless of the tool's purpose or manufacturer.

From the article:
"(The) procedure for tracing problems begins with testing and examining wires, then switches and finally brushes. The only special tool you will need is a multi-tester, available from an electronics shop for about $25. With it, a host of problems can be traced right to the source. Many electrical components on power tools can be replaced for $20 or less if you do the repair work yourself."

Here's a link to the article, Basic Repairs for Portable Power Tools

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Elenco's Romomech Motorized Wood Toy

I've read that these kits can be a little tricky to put together, but I just love the look of the wood with the motorized elements. Wood and machine; it's the best of both worlds!

From my Amazon aStore:
This kit is supplied with pre-punched boards, gears, shafts, switch, motor, battery holder, and all necessary parts. Includes easy-to-follow instructions. Requires 2 "AA" batteries, screwdriver and long nose pliers.

Check out the Robomech from Elenco.

Also check out all of the motorized mechanical toys I've loaded into The Automata / Automaton aStore.

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Engine-Powered Mechanical Horse

I was going to write a post about the giant mechanical puppets in France, which are totally amazing and mindblowing. However, in doing some research on the subject became totally and completely infatuated with something else. That something else is what you see in the photo above -- a motorized mechanical horse that can be ridden.

I have no idea if this thing really worked, if it could carry more than a fez-wearing boy, or even if this photograph is entirely genuine. (It has a somewhat painterly quality to it.) All I know for sure is: I want one of my own.

This is another gem from the Modern Mechanix blog from an article originally printed in 1933.

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Video of Life Size Elephant Automaton

I posted recently about a full-size walking elephant automaton. Here is some video of this amazing automaton in action.



Thanks to Tim Trager for the video

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