Help please! I need to make a butterfly!

[Valeria]

Hello,

I made a quilled butterfly (butterfly made out of paper). For my final piece I need to make the wings move. It does not need to fly, just need to make the wings move up and down. I know nothing about robotics and I was wondering if you could help me figure this out? What do I need to purchase and how do I assemble all the pieces together and make it work? Thank you in advance for your help.

[Runaway Pancake]

Just to tease and tantalise you -- http://www.jameco.com/Jameco/workshop/ProductNews/musclewire.html

[Coding Badly]

For my final piece I need to make the wings move.

Independently?

What size / weight are the wings?  Few inches?  Six feet?  Few grams?  Several pounds?

Is the piece on a pedestal?  Hanging?

(Picture may help.)

[zoomkat]

I'd skip the arduino and use a rubber band setup like the below ornithopters.

http://scienceglitz.blogspot.com/2011/07/how-to-make-rubber-band-powered.html

https://www.google.com/search?num=100&lr=&hl=en&as_qdr=all&q=make+ornithopter&spell=1&sa=X&ei=1Ld0UfTZFYm_0gG3vICQBQ&ved=0CC8QBSgA&biw=1135&bih=618

[Valeria]

Here is a picture of the butterfly. Each wing is 10x7x0.8 inches and I don't know exactly how much it weights but its all made out of paper so it does not weight much. Thank you.

[Coding Badly]

Here is a picture of the butterfly.

Very nice!

Each wing is 10x7x0.8 and I don't know exactly how much it weights but its all made out of paper so it does not weight much.

Got it.

Probably the easiest solution is to use a tiny servo (or two)...
https://www.google.com/search?q=tiny+servo

For a board, any Arduino compatible will work^#.  From this... http://www.pjrc.com/store/teensy.html ...to this... http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardMega2560
You will need the Servo Library... http://arduino.cc/en/Reference/Servo

And various other supplies...
Something to link the wings to servos (metal rod, plastic rod, string, wire)
Something to hold everything together (wood sheet, metal sheet, plastic sheet, even cardboard may work)
"Hinges" for the wings (metal loop, eyelet, string, paper strip)
Power supply for the board and the servos.  If the servos are especially small you may be able to use just one power supply.

^# With at least one caveat: I don't know if the Servo Library has been ported to the Due.

[macegr]

Muscle wire would be cool, but just a little tricky. Probably the easiest way is to mount this thing on a vertical tube, which is in turn mounted to a base containing the electronics. The wings are mounted to a yoke arrangement as shown in zoomkat's post, and a wire would run down to a small RC servo mounted in the base. Same idea as those robot grabber sticks.

[PeterH]

Each wing is 10x7x0.8

Meters or millimeters?

[HazardsMind]

What about a tiny motor with an offset shaft. You can use one of the motors found in those HEX bug things, or better yet, the ones found in electric toothbrushes. All you need to do is find a way to oscillate the shaft when it turns.

Something like this.

[terryking228]

Very small servos like this are inexpensive and widely available:
http://yourduino.com/sunshop2/index.php?l=product_detail&p=238

You could end up programming this for realistic, changing actions, from 'flying' to 'alighting and quivering' etc.

You could locate the servos in some base and use thin stiff wire (piano wire) to pull down to move the wings up. (Like model airplane control surfaces).


DISCLAIMER: Mentioned stuff from my own shop...

[Valeria]

10x7x0.8 inches

[HazardsMind]

10x7x0.8 inches

That is kinda big. You might need to use a bigger motor than the ones found in hex bugs. However the toothbrush motor should still work fine.

[PeterH]

10x7x0.8 inches

I don't know how you're planning to mount it, but if you suspend it by a string somewhere near the center of mass and make the string oscillate up and down, wouldn't that make the wings flap in phase with the movement? I'm imagining this as a slow graceful movement rather than a high frequency flapping.

[Valeria]

10x7x0.8 inches

That is kinda big. You might need to use a bigger motor than the ones found in hex bugs. However the toothbrush motor should still work fine.

Yes it is bigger than a realistic butterfly, but the wings still don't wight very much. What do you suggest I use?

Very small servos like this are inexpensive and widely available:
http://yourduino.com/sunshop2/index.php?l=product_detail&p=238

You could end up programming this for realistic, changing actions, from 'flying' to 'alighting and quivering' etc.

You could locate the servos in some base and use thin stiff wire (piano wire) to pull down to move the wings up. (Like model airplane control surfaces).

How would I assemble these things together? and how would I program it? do I need two small servos? each for each wing? or is one ok for the two wings?

Thank you all

[HazardsMind]

How would I assemble these things together? and how would I program it? do I need two small servos? each for each wing? or is one ok for the two wings?

Well with that type of motor I showed you in reply #8, you can make a piston like oscillator. These pictures below are what you will need to try and recreate.