AUTOMATA: "Walk the Dog Bot"

About 5 years ago, I became interested in the art of "automata" (aw-TOM'-a-tah). These are sometimes referred to as "mechanical toys" or "kinetic art". Most of the ones I've made have been for family and friends as gifts. I'll be showing you some of the earliest attempts on another post. But this little guy I made just for myself..."Walk The Dog Bot".

If you click on the photo, you can see a larger version...then hit your "back" button in your browser window to return to this page.


The idea for this piece came from a little sketch I had done on the back of a business card. It seemed like a fun character to animate, since he was mechanical to begin with. But as these images from my sketchbook show, it was trickier than I thought to figure out how to make it work. In the end, I had to compromise the design a bit, but I was happy with the results. And as I often learn when I construct these...the real-time engineering rarely functions like I thought it would.


When the crank handle is turned, the Saucer-Dog moves up and down, pulling the robot's hand up that holds the chain. The robot's legs move forward and back, while one arm swings back.


Most of the components were hand-made in my little woodshop in the corner of my basement. There are a few bits that were "found objects" like the dog's saucer (a wooden door knob for cabinets).


That's it for now...more to come.
-W