Has anybody out there tried building a radio control assisted puppets?  Whether it be the entire puppet, or just part of the puppet.  If so, what have you learned?

Craig

that is a very broad question......maybe you could narrow it down a bit.  What are you looking to animate? eyes, mouth, possibly ears?  where do you plan on using this? film or live or something else?.......

I would like to animate the entire puppet.  I plan on using them mostly in a live setting.

I just wanted to know what limitations and hurtles I can expect to encounter.

Craig 

I think your greatest hurdle will be cost,   Think of how many articulation points are in a single limb....those are now motors add in the other limbs and all the face(ears, eyes, mouth, etc.)  Even if these motors were scrapped from cheap RC toys...they could not be on the same frequency as each other(or it would seem your puppet had turrets every time it moved).  Once you got that many motors operating at different frequencies you would need a controller units with each stick tied to a specific frequency.  I would suggest checking out the documentary henson did for hoggle from the labyrinth(it's on the DVD) to see what your headed into.  After that I think you will only be stifled by your own creativity and how willing you are to do the research.  Is this your first foray into something like this?

No, I have never done anything close to it before, but learning new things is half the fun for me.

Craig

Craig,

If you query your favorite search engine for 'animatronic puppet' you can find all sorts of websites about people who do this for TV commercials and movies. The text on most sites tends to be self agrandizing more than tutorial, but the pictures speak a thousand words.

I think you will find the animatrionics forum at http://www.theeffectslab.com to be of great use.
The site itself is focused on gore special effects for horror movies but a puppet is a puppet, right?

Also look for info on R/C (radio controlled) systems. If you are looking to do a permanat display that operates by itself then you will need to learn some programming skills and will want to look into things like the ARDUINO motor controller board (the effects lab can help you there)
 
I got my start in R/C years back with simple race cars and after far too long I have finally built a really nice R/C 'puppet'.

http://astromechbuilder.com/mechloader/d/35899-1/MOV00204.MPG
Maybe he looks familiar to you?

Don't be fooled by his scifi appearance the electronics on board are readily available items that have been created for the people in the 'battle bots' comunity. Granted the body is fairly complex, but the controls systems are scarcely more complex that a typical R/C car.

Has anybody out there tried building a radio control assisted puppets?  Whether it be the entire puppet, or just part of the puppet.  If so, what have you learned?

Craig

Regarding R/C (radio controlled) systems, most online hobby shops can get ou started, but it takes some time to find the best prices.

I found my VEX 'Add On' transmitter on eBay for about $25 Its a 6 channel R/C transmitter. Also needed is a matching receiver which can be had for another $15 or so (the one that comes with the VEX is nonstandard)

This setup gets you 80% of the way (just need servos & a power supply) for a fraction of the cost of a dedicated 'Heli' R/C system.

Thank you Jon.  That answers most of my questions.

Craig

Making remote controlled animatronic puppets is my full time job.  www.proboticsamerica.com

There are a few companies that do this at a level designed for consumers/performers rather than movie studios (us, Axtel and several haunt places mainly) and there are quite a few people who do it as a hobby.  For the most part you will be able to use standard $15 (new) R/C servos to power your puppet. Controls can be via radio control or thorough a computer and animation board (like Brookshire Software $65 and Pololu boards - $40 or so).  The challenges are
1) Selecting and fitting servos into the puppet to move it properly. 
2) Servo selection and balancing the load on the units.  This is a mechanical and electro-mechanical challenge as these servos do not like to be active against resistance for a long period of time and will burn out if you do so.
3) Controls - running 1-4 servos is easy.  Running 5 servos is hard.  Running 6 servos is like bicycling while playing a guitar.  Running 7 servos adds the rest of the band.  Each servo moves one joint on the puppet, though you can link some joints together to get them to both move (or even move in opposite directions) when a single servo is moved. 
4) Power source - you will need a good plugged in power source that provides 5-6 volts or a battery with at least 2000mAh power and 4000-12,000 is a lot better. 

Check out hobbyking.com for the least expensive 2.4Ghz radio controls or the guys mentioned above for programmed operations.  Bluepoint engineering is also good for that.  Servos from Hobbyking vary in quality but are very inexpensive.  If you estimate the cost at $50 - 75 for the radio and $14-40 per servo depending on power required you'll have an idea of the cost.  If you have questions or get stuck on anything feel free to send me an email.

Dave Jannke
Probotics America

just thought I'd share this, after your description of how things get more complicated very quickly I thought this was completely mindblowing!