Robot On Stage?

[armybrat]

I am a university theatre student, and am looking into robotics to use in a prop on stage. The play calls for a rabbit to appear to be alive, and it seems that a fake stuffed rabbit with a small robot inside would provide enough movement to resemble life. However my knowledge of robotics is limited, and I've never had the opportunity to build one myself.

I was hoping to get some ideas on a moderately cost effective way to approach this problem. Any ideas at all would be welcome.

 

[Hank Fletcher]

What does the rabbit need to appear to be doing? Can you give a context for its use? Is it about to be crushed, like in Mice and Men, or is it going down a a big hole, like in Alice in Wonderland?

Context means a lot to getting the sense of the rabbit over to the audience. The simplest electronic method of simulating movement would be a battery, a small DC motor, and some sort of cam attached to the motor shaft. You'd put all that inside your stuff rabbit, and make it squirm around. If you wanted an actor to "kill the wabbit," as a certain bald hunter is famous for saying, you could easily add a push-button switch to the circuit mentioned above.

 

[Hank Fletcher]

Another forum member (I think it was blueroomelectronics) posted a link to this site awhile back, and you might find it useful, too:
**broken link removed**

Seeing what's inside animatronic stuffed toys might give you some ideas on how to shape the motion towards your goal. Come to think of it, the most cost-effective way might be for you to pilfer the innards of an existing toy that most closely matches what you want, and use those in your own rabbit.

 

[monkeybiter]

It would be a lot cheaper and easier to use a real rabbit....

 

[sirelboe]

hard to train it tho

:0