MARIONETTE FROM TRADITIONAL MANIPULATION TO ROBOTIC.pdfVIP

MARIONETTE: FROM TRADITIONAL MANIPULATION TO ROBOTIC MANIPULATION I-Ming Chen Raymond Tay Shusong Xing Song Huat Yeo School of Mechanical and Production Engineering Nanyang Technological University Singapore 639798 E-mail: michen@.sg ABSTRACT- Marionettes are string-operated puppets. It is an ancient and universal form of performing art which still evolves slowly today. From the engineering perspective, the marionette is a wire- (or string-) driven multi-limbed under-actuated mechanism under gravity influence that exhibits rich kinematic and dynamic behaviours. This article introduces the evolution and the engineering aspect of traditional marionette design and manipulation skills. Based on the mechanics of marionette, a novel robotic marionette system that manipulates the puppet through mechatronic means is developed. The marionette may create life-like movements according to programmed motion commands issued from the computer and a motor-driven puppeteer mechanism. A simple demonstration of the robotic marionette performance is shown as well. KEYWORDS: Puppet. Marionette history. Robotic marionette. Puppeteer mechanism. I. INTRODUCTION Puppetry and Puppet Theater are popular art forms having a long and fascinating heritage in many cultures. The survival of this art form is due to man’s fascination with the inanimate object animated in a dramatic manner [1], and human’s curiosity to “reproduce” an exact artificial copy of him (or her). Recent advances in the humanoid robots speak for this quest of curiosity. Most types of puppets in use today fall into four broad ca