Many have promised to do this, but here is a work in progress that is far along! Animatronic Tail with Range of Behavior from One Point of Articulation! From TheRoboLemur:
This is my animatronic tail work in process. It currently only has 2 x 343 ounce-inch servos moving it. The plan is to have a total of 6 actuators with every third segment being a control point, breaking the tail into three independently controlled sections.
The current way in which I am controlling the movement is with a pair of flex sensors and an Arduino Uno.
The joints of the tail have been redesigned so that they are stronger. At this point, the plastic will break before the joint pulls apart in regular use. Being ABS plastic, the same plastic Legos are made out of, this tail is able to take some abuse.
The purpose of this tail design is for my fursona, which has a bionic tail. I hope however, that the control system we are developing will be able to be implemented with multiple tail designs for use with multiple species.
The current rigging was made for use at Naka Kon in Kansas City. I did wear it for an extended period of time, and it was rather comfortable. The only down side was sitting. I had to be careful how I sat down.
Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!
Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!
The Adafruit Learning System has dozens of great tools to get you well on your way to creating incredible works of engineering, interactive art, and design with your 3D printer! If you’ve made a cool project that combines 3D printing and electronics, be sure to let us know, and we’ll feature it here!