Portfolio
Each of these items has its own page as well as its entry below.
Portfolio Videos
Portfolio odds and ends
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The head for a Swedish museum is fitted with a Gaze-Control neck post, which provides random lifelike movements to the head,
and Gaze-Eyes in which the eyes move, again, in a random lifelike manner.
In partnership with Gems Display Figures.
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The human sized Leg was made for the Shadow Robot Co. as part of a contract from North Carolina A & T University and my understanding is that it was to be used at North Carolina A & T University in a research program which would investigate myoelectric control of powered prosthetic legs. The program was to be overseen by Dr. Gary L. Lebby, a Research Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
The actuators are Shadow Air muscles, a development of the McKibben artificial muscle.
Material - white acetal plate.
The leg was fitted with the control system used by the Shadow Hand
dimensions
| Thigh length | 450mm
| | Shin length | 400mm
| | Foot length | 240mm
| | Ankle height | 90mm
| | Toe length | 70mm
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kinematics
| Joint | Range degrees
| | Hip 1 | -35 | +35
| | Hip 2 | -30 | +90
| | Knee | 0 | -120
| | Ankle 1 | -45 | +15
| | Ankle 2 | -20 | +20
| | Toe | -45 | 0
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The figure of Sir William sits at a desk in his office reading a drawing.
When vistors approach he looks up at them then gazes around before returning to his drawing.
In partnership with Gems Display Figures.
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The figure of a Policeman sat on a bed in an iron barred prison cell on the Police Federation's stand at the party Political Conferences 2003 where he was interviewed by MPs.
The skin of the head was silicone, which allowed for realistic facial movements; and the controller, MP3 player and speakers were inside the body, so the figure was self contained needing only a mains power socket.
In partnership with Gems Display Figures.
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The Animatronic figure is of a nineteen fifties scottish farmer (crofter) talking about his harsh life and is installed in the Hootananny Celtic
Heritage Centre in Inverness.
The skin of the head is silicone, which allows for realistic facial movements and long life;
and the controller, MP3 player and speakers are inside the body so the figure is self
contained needing only a mains power socket. The Crofter speaks in Gaelic which is
translated by a Tour Guide prior to an audio visual presentation.
In partnership with Gems Display Figures.
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| Cyclers is one of three state of
the art presentation robots specially designed and built for the environment and
education charity Waste Watch www.wastewatch.org.uk to
bring their waste prevention message of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle to schools around the
country.
To aid Cycler in his job he needs a handler to tell
him what to do by using a concealed radio control transmitter.
He has five microcontrollers for a brain and nervous system; an MP3 sound file player, amplifier and speakers to allow him to talk; and seven electric motors to make him move.
The handler can make Cycler drive around, move his arms,
move his head and has full control over the MP3 player allowing highly interactive dialogs to take place.
In between being told what to do Cycler runs his own
inbuilt personality program which makes him look around, moving and flashing his eyes, whilst moving his head and arms; for practical reasons Cycler is not allowed to drive about unless specifically ordered to do so by his handler. This
personality program enables the handler to have both hands in view whilst Cycler continues to move speak and generally look alive thus
aiding the presentation.
In partnership with Professor Martin Smith, then of the Technology Innovation Centre (TIC)
Update 2006 - WRAP are now funding Waste Watch's Cycler project and have renamed Cycler as recycler  .
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Hextor is a six legged walking robot designed for Milford Instruments to be
the top of their range of robots.
Based around a Parallax BS2sx processor, easily programmed in Stamp Basic,
the Walker has with fifteen servos motors, twelve for the six legs, two for
the gripper/lift and one for scanning with the Polaroid ultrasonic range-finder,
power is supplied from a standard 7.2volt Nicad pack.
In partnership with Milford Instruments.
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The Animatronic Head is fully programmable for movements of nod, shake and eyes from side to side.
All the mechanics are contained in the head which uses the standard Gems neck-post attachment which enables it to be fitted to any of the Gems range of bodies.
The moves for the head and eyes are recorded by moving a control knob, repeating for each of the movements and so building up the performance which can last up to four minutes. The performance can be triggered by infrared sensors etc and can also be set to repeat automatically.
In partnership with Gems Display Figures.
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TecFoot is a two foot (63 cms) tall biped robot controlled by a Parallax Basic-Stamp-2 computer and two auilliary processors. It is equiped with five servo motors which enable true biped walking and turning.
TecFoot was designed for Milford Instruments to fulfil an order from the University of Glagow's Mechanical Engineering Department for ten large BigFoot type biped robots.
In partnership with Milford Instruments.
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| Animatronic figures, Assize Courts, Bodmin, Cornwall.
| 1999
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Animatronic figures, part of a fifteen figure re-creation of an 1880's trial in the original Assize Courts, Bodmin, Cornwall. Six animatronic figures were produced each with up to eight patterns of movement controlled by a show control system to synchronize with audio and lighting for this 20 minute 'theatre' bringing the court alive with the sights and sounds of an actual 19th century trial.
In partnership with Gems Display Figures.
Educational Robotics - kits
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BigFoot is a biped walking robot controlled by a Parallax Basic-Stamp-1 computer. It is equiped with two servo motors which enable true biped walking and turning.
The original BigFoot was designed as an experimental robot and then created as a kit and sold by Milford Instruments.
BigFoot was the first two servo-motor Biped Walking Robot in the world;
was the first Biped Walking Robot to be sold as a kit;
was the first Biped Walking Robot which didn't use 'overlapping feet' (as is common in toys) to be commercialy available as a production item;
and was the first commercialy available Biped Walking Robot which was able to step and turn.
It was also the robot design which introduced to the world the concept of sideways tipping feet which enabled its weight to be transferred from one foot to the other. This is now the de facto standard method for small biped robots.
BigFoot has been the inspiration for many variants, see www.davidbuckley.net/DB/Inspire.htm
In partnership with Milford Instruments.
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| The New-Invention is a steam powered wood chopping car created by Beauty's father which is driven about and chops wood on-stage.
The Dominion Theatre, Totenham Court Road, London.
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| A ride-in electric van for the Postman Pat British touring show.
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A unit to enable a standard Gems head to be used as an Animatronic head on a standard body.
Using the Gaze-Control allows the figure to be given different personalities by simply adjusting the control knobs. In addition external devices can initiate one or two triggered behaviors.
In partnership with Gems Display Figures.
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| A special effect for a pantomime in Southampton, (I don't know what it was called).
A pig on a lead had to turn the Butt in a circle whilst off-stage someone had to fire an arrow into the bullseye then a second arrow had to split the first.
I made an elastic powered truck inside the 'T' beam which pushed out an arrow through the bullseye and then the arrow split to reveal a second arrow. The whole arrangement was operated from under the stage and the truck had a big safety-pin which locked it in place so a stage hand wouldn't get pierced by an arrow!
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Camel 3a
Andrew Lloyd Weber's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
the British Touring Show. for smaller theatres. - A thinner base for Camel-3.
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Camel 3
Andrew Lloyd Weber's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
the British Touring Show.
| October 1993
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Camel 2
Andrew Lloyd Weber's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
the American Touring Show.
| November 1992
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The pneumatic system for the evil vines and other special effects
for the EuroDisney Sleeping Beauty pop-up Book
| January 1992
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| The book was built by Michael Whitely's shop in London and Adam Wright worked with pop-up book artist Jan Pienkowski to build the sets.
The book was huge, with live actors performing on the pages.
Sadly though, after the opening of EuroDisney the book seems to have gone into storage. Has anyone seen it since?
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Camel 1
Andrew Lloyd Weber's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
at the London Palladium.
| May 1991
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Prototype robot arm.
