Summer Musical Set Moving Robots

[math311]

So who has been given an interesting project for robotics? Laser Robotics Team 2077 has been contacted by our schools drama club to design and build robots to move a 40' long, 8' tall, 6' deep stage piece for the musical Les Miserables. The set piece weighs an estimated 600lb un-decorated. So far we have built two 6' long kit bots out of wood, mounted C-Channel to mount motors and wheels, and have an amazing control board which has an IFI controller, four spikes, and six Victors mounted. One of our mentors built it this season to help us with testing. There are four CIM connected to Toughboxes mounted to drive, and they all respond to a single joystick. We tested and had one Toughbox actually drive the whole set. Does anyone else have any really awesome summer projects?

[Akash Rastogi]

I know that 2493 Robokong has been doing this out in Cali for a while now for a local theatre.

Ask rsisk (Rich Sisk) on here about his cool projects

[1502]

Last year we made a sweet magic carpet. Black fabric and a tasseled carpet covered a fiberglass frame and a plywood top that was 3ft x 6ft. Ran on old IFI.

This year we were asked if we could make something that could rotate a 60ft diameter set that would weight 1000lbs; not including people. We declined.

[math311]

Originally Posted by 1502

This year we were asked if we could make something that could rotate a 60ft diameter set that would weight 1000lbs; not including people. We declined.

But wouldn't that be fun!

[DiscoDancer]

A little over a year ago, as part of my college robotics club, UT Austin's Robotics and Automation Society, a group of us made 4 teleoperated robots to be characters in a local theater's,Salvage Vanguard Theater, production of Heddatron. Here's the director's write up of the play.

It was a lot of fun trying to bridge the gap between technology and the arts!

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by 1502

This year we were asked if we could make something that could rotate a 60ft diameter set that would weight 1000lbs; not including people. We declined.

Noises Off?

If anyone else gets a similar request and actually makes something to do it, please let me know if I can get a set of plans.

[Jenn Feathers]

Originally Posted by 1502

This year we were asked if we could make something that could rotate a 60ft diameter set that would weight 1000lbs; not including people. We declined.

Im on my schools stage and light crew and our set builder came up with a rotating set for our 2010 musical "Bye Bye Birdie". its quite simple and can move lots of weight including people. The part that rotates has about 4 or 5 rows of castors under it, the frame is 2x4s with the surface covered with partical board. The entire set is rotated by a big electric motor set on the inside edge of the circle and that motor turns a 8" dia. pnuematic wheel. The last time we used it (Harvey) it took 1 minute and 46 seconds to do one full turn.

It also leaves big grooves in the floor, and u can only rotate the set in one direction.

[OZ_341]

Our school musical requested a robotic "boat" for The Phantom of the Opera in 2011. It was a great rookie project and involved some very cool challenges, like noise reduction. I'll try to post a picture later.
If you ever get a request like this from your school, Do It!

[math311]

We have been working daily for the past two weeks, and some of the most fun has been when we got the entire cast and crew together in the auditorium, and announced that we were going to build some robotic set, and that anything with a blinky light or wire could shock them, and that unless they were interested in losing a finger, they should avoid contact with the chains. The looks they had were priceless. To re-enforce the point we wanted to stick a fake hand in the drivetrain and drive a bot across the stage covered with fake blood. But we were informed that we could not, due to lacking sufficient supplies of fake blood!