Marionette: From Traditional Manipulation to Robotic Manipulation

Marionettes are string-operated puppets. It is an ancient and universal form of performing art which still evolves slowly today. From the engineering perspective, the marionette is a wire- (or string-) driven multi-limbed under-actuated mechanism under gravity influence that exhibits rich kinematic and dynamic behaviours. This article introduces the evolution and the engineering aspect of traditional marionette design and manipulation skills. Based on the mechanics of marionette, a novel robotic marionette system that manipulates the puppet through mechatronic means is developed. The marionette may create life-like movements according to programmed motion commands issued from the computer and a motor-driven puppeteer mechanism. A simple demonstration of the robotic marionette performance is shown as well.

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