Robot Skull (Like Geoff off Craig Ferguson)

Working robot skull!!

Build your own Robot Skull a bit like Geoff off Craig Ferguson.

This is based on real skull and spine models. I've added a hinged jaw and cutouts for LED eyes and 2 micro servos to control the jaw and neck.

• Just add an Arduino and use your imagination...

demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9vZwMeGfkc

Update 2013-12-06: The base now contains a printed roller bearing to allow free rotation without putting weight on the servo and is stable enough to support the skull

Instructions

Printing hints

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• I used 0.2mm layer height on an UP3D mini - works great
• You can fit this together without any servos to make a static model
• If using servos, do not resize the skull when printing or they won't fit any more
• Print the bearing using hollow fill and your printers finest detail setting. Mine came off the raft fully functional(!) If your's doesn't you might just have to free each roller with a scalpel

Robot parts list

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• 2x standard hobby micro servos
• 1x one armed servo horn
• 1x circular servo horn
• 2x blue LEDs
• 2x 330 Ohm resistors
• Blu tack/glue/tape
• Microcontroller, wires, etc...

LED eyes assembly

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Clip the LED leads and solder a wire to each leg. Use heat shrink tubing and/or a tiny amount of electrical tape to protect against shorts. The wire needs to be long enough to reach through the eye hole and out the bottom of the skull to your controler circuit. curl the metal legs into a smooth 45 degree curve so that they can be pressed into position easily. The bottom rim of the LEDs should wedge into the eye socket leaving the smaller part protruding. 330 ohm resistors work great for the blue LEDs I used.

Jaw assembly

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The jaw needs to begently squeezed to fit its pins into the sockets in the skull. Insert the a microservo into the recess at the base of the skull and fit the single arm servo horn to it. The servo arm should be pointing directly at the square socket in the jaw. I suggest you align the jaw pin nearest the servo, the servo and the servo horn in one motion. Once you've done this squeeze the opposite pin into its socket. The servo should be secured with glue, blu tack, tape, etc.

Spine and base assembly

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Skrew the round servo horn onto the micro servo and then glue or skrew it into the round area at the bottom of the spine.

Push the circular base of the skull through the centre of the roller bearing. It will fit exactly but you must currently trim the bits of spine protruding from the base. Once positioned, cement in place with acetone or glue.

Brush the whole of the base with acetone to strengthen the legs.

Pull the servo lead through the socket and then push the roller bearing into the base until it is flush. It should fit exactly and hold itself in position by itself. Don't glue it so that you can get the servo out again if you need to.

The square end of the spine fits exactly into the recess in the bottom of the skull but there is no mechanism to hold it so you must fix it some other way with blue tack/glue.

The base can be anchored at each leg using blu tack if it moves about. If your bearings are stiff, try spraying WD-40 over them.

I leave the wiring and circuitry to you - have fun!

Category: Robotics