Clod the gravedigger

My first animatronic was Clod the gravedigger. This whole thing started with my attempt to build a set of animatronic eyes. I'm not even sure why I wanted to build animatronic eyes, but one thing led to another and, well, I started building these things.



I'd seen some animatronic eyes on the internet, and the first build was an attempt to duplicate the ones I'd seen. Unfortunately using this design produced a mechanism that broke if you looked at it too hard.





Using my own design the second set of eyes are rugged and alot easier to build. The second eye design came late in the project, so the following photos still have the original eye design.



I'd found a mask that I wanted to use, so the framework for the head came first. And, of course, I wanted the head to be able to turn left and right, and the head to nod up and down, so the design started to get somewhat complex.



This shot shows the head mechanism with four servos: one for the head turning left/right, one for the eyes looking left/right, one for the eyes looking up/down, and the mouth servo. The fifth servo for the head assembly is connected below this shot connected to the chain drive shown at the bottom of the photo.

This is the final design of the head mechanism. The circular white disk in the lower part of the photo is the geared-up servo that has enough torque to have the head nod up and down via the chain drive. My insistence that the animatronic have a head that could nod up and down became an expensive whim, as the cost of the servo and mechanism that had enough torque wound up costing me over $150.



Clod and friend.