The Automaton

The Walking Automaton, whose aesthetic is based on asian Shadow Theater, depicts a man walking four paces driven by a geared assembly and then reseting only to walk the same four paces again. Much like asian shadow theater depicts historic myths and folk tales, The Walking Automaton immortalizes a fault of humanity where people allow themselves to move my mechanics outside their understanding.
For this project, I designed the geared mechanism, track and housing in CAD software. Prototypes were 3D printed to get the shape of the foot movement correct before I laser cut all of the acrylic components. Furthermore, I water jet, bent and sand blasted all of the aluminum parts for the motor and belt housing as well as turned all of the stainless steal rods on the lathe. The figure was made polished laser cut acrylic and aluminum that was articulated to move with the piece. I designed the sled in CAD software to hold the gear mechanism and pressure fit four linear bearings. Finally, I used a microcontroller to control the movement of the sculpture.