Creating a Robotic Parrot: Could This Work?

[Cloudz]

TL;DR Summary

I had an idea for a project but unsure if it would work.

So, I want to make a robot parrot. I would like the parrot to be able to open and close their wings. I had a couple of ideas for the wings, one of which I'm not sure would work.

Could this idea work? If so, how much torque would the motor/gearbox need and how would that be found? If it doesn't work, are there any tweaks that could be made to make it work?

The idea:
The wing would be made with varying sizes of hollow 1/16 in. thick square tubes with shafts connecting each of the tubes in a sort of zig-zag pattern. The tubes, starting at the tip of the wing, are a 5.7 in. long tube with a height of 3/8 in. (length may change), a 2.85 in. long tube with a height of 1/2 in., a 2.85 in. long tube with a height of 3/4 in., and a (currently, though subject to change) 5 in. long tube with a height of 1/2 in. There are 3 joints in total. Inside the joints of the tubes are 315° right-wound torsion springs (with a max torque of 0.33 in-lbs) that keep the wing in a semi-folded position. There would be a rope attached to the end piece of the wing and run along the inside of each tube. At the end, there would be a motor and gearbox attached to a spool for the rope. The idea is that when the spool is turned, the rope is pulled tight and the wings open, and when the rope is given some slack, the wings return to their folded shape. I'm not sure if any of this info is useful but thought it wouldn't hurt to add it.

Any help is appreciated!

 

[jedishrfu]

You might get some ideas from the youtube videos of parrots below:



and this article about a 3D printed parrot:

https://3dprint.com/22638/3d-printed-robotic-parrot/

and this one with a flapping mechanism:

 

[LuccaP4]

I suppose the first thing to do is studying the parrot skeleton and the types of movement in order to replicate the joints. If you know about programming, maybe Raspberry Pi would be better than Arduino, but it depends on what do you want the parrot to do.

 

[jedishrfu]

The basic difference between Raspberry-PI and Arduino is in how many devices can be controlled. The Pi is good for a few devices but the Arduino can handle quite a lot of devices ie sensors, motors...

Some DIYers gang the two together with the PI sending commands to the arduino which controls all the devices.

https://www.electronicshub.org/raspberry-pi-vs-arduino/

 

[LuccaP4]

Thanks for the data. Maybe the battery pack would make the difference. Also Arduino is cheaper.

Some DIYers gang the two together with the PI sending commands to the arduino which controls all the devices.

Nice, I'm searching it.

Edit: This is pretty interesting.
https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub/techno_z/program-your-arduino-from-your-raspberry-pi-3407d4

 

[Cloudz]

You might get some ideas from the youtube videos of parrots below:



and this article about a 3D printed parrot:

https://3dprint.com/22638/3d-printed-robotic-parrot/

and this one with a flapping mechanism:

Those all look really cool! Thank you!

 

[Cloudz]

The basic difference between Raspberry-PI and Arduino is in how many devices can be controlled. The Pi is good for a few devices but the Arduino can handle quite a lot of devices ie sensors, motors...

Some DIYers gang the two together with the PI sending commands to the arduino which controls all the devices.

https://www.electronicshub.org/raspberry-pi-vs-arduino/

I'm not too well versed in electronics, so I was originally planning on using an Arduino Uno I had laying around. What do you mean that they gang two together?

 

[jedishrfu]

Gang is another way of saying connected together.

If you search a bit on raspberry pi / arduino projects you can see how its done. Basically the pi controls the arduino. It loads a communications program in the arduino and then sends to the arduino commands to execute.

 

[Cloudz]

Gang is another way of saying connected together.

If you search a bit on raspberry pi / arduino projects you can see how its done. Basically the pi controls the arduino. It loads a communications program in the arduino and then sends to the arduino commands to execute.

Thank you! Seems pretty interesting