Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I am tryning to use moldable plastic to create a miniature(about 2-3 inches) arm/lever that can do an up-doen motion(about 1 inch) and a side to side motion linearly using a motor. I just wanted to ask about any ideas on how to go about making the happen.

amnaj - I just noticed that this older post had not received a reply. Science Buddies apologizes. There are many approaches to converting rotary motion to linear motion (and vice-versa). Levers, cams, eccentrics, Geneva mechanisms, etc. Do a search on the simple question of 'rotary to linear motion' and you will find many solutions complete with sketches and/or videos. If I understand your question, you want a compound result, that is, up and down and side-to-side. That may require a combination of two simple solutions driven by the same rotary input. It will require some thought, but once you see some of the classic solutions, a practical approach may come to mind. Good luck.

Rick Marz

Hello,

I apologize for the late response! In addition to researching instructional videos and/or websites, there are a couple of resources on Science Buddies that might help, such as this article on servo motors: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... rvo-motors
I might also suggest going to the Project Ideas tab and clicking on "Browse Projects by Topic," then going to "Robotics." There might be several projects listed that are similar to yours which could help you. Here is a link to one example, "Building a Robot Hand:" https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... robot-hand
I hope this helps!

Sincerely,
Elena Lee