FEDD Presentation Team Daedalus
Designing our figure... We decided to base our project off of the Greek myth of Daedalus and Icarus. As the story says, Daedalus, an esteemed inventor, was held captive and told to build his captor all sorts interesting inventions. Tired by his life of slavery, Daedalus built himself and his son, Icarus, wings of wax to fly away. The father warned his son not to go near the sun as the wax would melt and he would fall to his death; Icarus being the child he was did not heed his father’s warning and perished. Our animatronic serves as a unique way to remind its audience of this Ancient Greek tale.
Our mechanism... As you can see here, our mechanism consists of a system of gears and shafts that will allow wings to move upwards and downwards in the xz-plane. The parts of the mechanism were originally designed 3D printed by a member of our team.
3D Printing in Work We used 3D printing to manufacture most of our parts. This allowed us to design with specific tolerances and precise shapes in mind, while presenting certain challenges with durability and friction to overcome
Our creative intent... As you can see from the image provided, our final product would have a robed Icarus getting ready to take off.
Designing and Building our Animatronic ● The process of deciding on our project, designing it, and creating the final product was well-integrated with the design cycle. ● In particular, our entire project could be described within the 5 main sections of the design cycle described by NC state ○ Ask Imagine ○ ○ Plan Create ○ ○ Improve
The First Step - Asking The first step in the project was to ask what we needed our design to do, the issues ● we could run into, and how to test our design. We worked forward from the description of the project given to us, deciding ○ the base requirements we were going to build the project around: It would have 1-2 main degrees of motion ■ It would be battery powered ■ It would fit within a .5m cube ■ It would be aesthetically pleasing ■
Imagining and Brainstorming Our first major decision was what to base the design off of ● Initially deciding between a running wolf and Icarus in flight, eventually ○ settling on Icarus Once we had a design to work around, we had several more decisions to make ● Body position ○ There was the choice of how to position the figure, ending up deciding ■ on a running start The Basic Mechanism ○ We also had to decide on how we wanted it to move, eventually ■ choosing for the wings to be the only major moving part
Planning and Designing
Insert stuff of the model here
Creating our Product Because most of our mechanism was 3D-printed, we made them in batches on a ● personal printer For our motor, we tried to work within our budget to order one online, the ● dimensions of which we integrated into our printed support. The batteries were specifically chosen for the motor and ordered alongside it ○ For the wooden foundation, we had a team member go out and purchase the ● proper materials, which were cut and assembled by hand
Improving Our Design As we neared the finish of our first design, we noticed a few ways that we needed to ● improve that could be done within our constraints We redesigned our slide levers to behave more smoothly and interlock more ○ efficiently with the other parts as we tested the tolerances and fit once we could start assembly If we had more time, we would have developed a lighter-weight wing design ○ to reduce strain on the system
Challenges We struggled to make our design work consistently with the weak motor that we could afford with our $40 budget. It was difficult to build a decent sized animatronic that could still fit within our constraints while also finding a big enough motor.
How we did at FEDD! We were the first group to be judged! Our ● presentation went well but unfortunately some of our wires came disconnected from the motor and the judges had to come back to see our mechanism actually work. When they did come back, we were able to show ● them our wings flapping for just a few seconds as our motor had been getting overworked by that point (from all the testing). Of the 8 teams at FEDD, we placed 5th with a ● rating of 85.5 out of 100!
How we could improve! Time and resource management ● We ran into some problems with our budget towards the end, as the base was ○ more expensive than we initially thought leaving us with a less powerful motor than we had hoped Our lack of money towards the end also restricted our artistic intent with the ○ project, making us unable to have a humanoid figure in the image of Icarus with the wings protruding from his back. With better planning and budgeting our project could have been vastly ○ improved
Advice for students next year... 1) Start working on the project immediately 2) Make sure you have your design laid out early so you can order your parts well in advance of the final assembly 3) Note than any motor you can get that is below $30 is going to be very weak so don’t put too much strain on it
References Ancarola, Gabi. “The Tragic Story of the Fall of Icarus.” Greek Reporter , 17 Apr. 2018, ● greece.greekreporter.com/2018/04/17/the-tragic-story-of-the-fall-of-icarus/. “An Enchanted Tiki Tour of Disney Parks.” D23 , 22 June 2018, d23.com/55-years-of-walt-disneys-enchanted-tiki-room/. ● “Animatronics.” Wikipedia , Wikimedia Foundation, 21 Aug. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animatronics#History. ● Glover, Erin. “The 1964 New York World’s Fair - A New Disney Technology Is Born.” Disney Parks Blogs , Disney Parks, 21 Apr. 2011, ● disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2011/04/the-1964-new-york-worlds-fair-a-new-disney-technology-is-born/ Grundhauser, Eric. “The Future of Animatronics, From Disney to the U.S. Military.” Atlas Obscura , Atlas Obscura, 9 Sept. 2016, ● www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-future-of-animatronics-from-disney-to-the-us-military. “Jaquet-Droz Automata.” Wikipedia , Wikimedia Foundation, 1 Dec. 2017, ● en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaquet-Droz_automata#/media/File:Automates-Jaquet-Droz-p1030472.jpg. Loftus, Jamie. “A History of Chuck E. Cheese’s Animatronic Band.” Motherboard , VICE, 25 Aug, 2017. ● www.motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/9kkn7y/a-history-of-chuck-e-cheeses-animatronic-band Niles, Robert. “Theme Park History: A Short History of Universal Studios Hollywood.” Theme Park Insider, July 2013, ● www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/201307/3564/ Pearson, Ben. “Mary Poppins Returns: Why Julie Andrews Won’t Appear.” Film , Film, 9 June 2017. ● www.slashfilm.com/mary-poppins-returns-julie-andrews-wont-appear/
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