Summer Musical Set Moving Robots

[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!