How to Build Your Own Animatronic Teddy Bear

Have you ever wished your stuffed toys could get up and walk around, maybe even talk? Well this instructable is just what you need. I will show you how to transform your ordinary stuffed bear into an animated robotic pal. All the while, keeping the same soft, plushness that makes it so lovable.

Step 1: Materials

Below is a list of the materials that will be needed to complete this project. 

1. Arduino Duemilanove Board
2. Male to Male Solderless Flexible Breadboard Jumper Cable Wires (8)
3. BB400 Solderless Plug-In Breadboard
4. H5-55 Feather Micro Hitec Servo (4)
5. Doll Accessories (Doll Legs Set/Lt)- Purchased from Hobby Lobby
6. Doll Accessories (Doll Arms Set/Lt)- Purchased from Hobby Lobby
7. The Pampered Chef: Cutlery (My Safe Cutter- #2904)
8. Windows 7 or Higher
9. Desk Top Computer 
10. Duct Tape
11. USB 1 to USB 2 Cord 2.0
12. 4.1 mm Phillips Screwdriver
13. Cardboard
14. Popsicle Sticks (6.3 cm X 0.9 cm) (4)
15. Scissors
16. Adhesive Tape
17. Medium Sized Teddy Bear
18. Plastic Ziploc Bags- Small (2)
19. Small Recording Device- Purchased from Build-A-Bear
20. USB Adapter Kit- Cyber Power (USB B)
21. Tapestry-Round-End Needle
22. Brown Cotton Thread
23. RAYOVAC Charger Model-PS73
24. RAYOVAC AA Batteries (4)
25. 7/16 in. Clasp Fastener (4)
26. 7/16 in. Eyelet & Snap Fastener Pliers
27. Old T-Shirt
28. 18 in. Piece of String (2)
29. Safety Pin

Step 2: Prepping the Arms and Legs

- With a small knife, create an incision on the right side of the left doll’s leg and on the left side of the right doll’s leg.
- Then, with the same knife, make an incision into the top of each of the doll’s arm.
- Next, unscrew the server horns off of four servos with a 1.4mm Phillips screwdriver. (With each servo there should be an extra three server horns.)
- Take the longest server horn out of each set and screw one onto all four servos with the 1.4mm Phillips screwdriver.

Step 3: The Wiring

- Select twelve servo jumper cable wires.
* four yellow
  * four green
          * four black
- Connect one of the yellow jumper cable wires to the yellow wire that extends from one of the servos.
- Then connect one of the green jumper cable wires to the red wire that extends from one of the servos.
- Finally connect one of the black jumper cable wires to the black wire that extends from one of the servos.
- Repeat those three steps for the other three servos.
- Connect the green jumper cable wires to the five volt (positive) rail of the breadboard and connect the black jumper cable wires to the ground (negative) rail of the breadboard.
- Take one of the yellow jumper cable wires and connect it to pin nine, then connect one to pin ten, one to pen eleven, and the last yellow jumper cable wire to pin twelve on the digital output pins of the arduino duemilanove board.
- Next select two more jumper cable wires.
* one blue
          * one orange
- Hook up the blue jumper cable wire to the five volt (positive) rail on the breadboard and to the five volt pin on the arduino duemilanove board.
- Also, hook up the orange jumper cable wire to the ground (negative) rail on the breadboard and to the ground pin on the arduino duemilanove board.

Step 4: Placing the Servos Inside of the Arms and Legs

- Then insert two servos into one of the doll’s legs through the incision previously made (it does not matter which servo goes into the right or left leg).
- Once both servos are inside one of the legs, seal each leg with duct tape.
- Take the other two servos and insert them into either arm. Again, once the servo is secured, seal the arms with duct tape.

Step 5: Programming the Arduino Duemilanove Board

- Next connect the arduino duemilanove board to the Windows 7 Desktop with an USB B Adapter  Cord.
- Then go to arduino.cc/en/Main/Software and download the Arduino 1.0.5 Windows Installer for the arduino duemilanove board.
- Once the software is done downloading, open it up by clicking on Start and in the Menu there should be the arduino software. 
*Click on it.
- When the software is pulled up, go to Tools, click on Board, and change it to Arduino Duemilanove w/ ATmega328.
- Then click on Tools again, go down to Serial Port, and chose COM3.
- Next go the the top left-hand corner, click on File, scroll down to Examples, click on Servo, and then choose Sweep.
- This example code is only for one servo, but since four are being used, three more servos need to be added.
- Underneath Servo myservo, copy the same code but change the name of the second servo to Servo myservo1.
- Then under myservo.attach(9), write the same code out, but change the second code to myservo1.attach(10). This lets the arduino duemilanove board know that there are two digital output pins in use.
- Next find myservo.write(pos), copy the same code, and again change the name of the second code to myservo.1.
- Finally under the second myservo.write(pos); write out the same code, and change the name of the second servo to myservo1.
- Repeat those four steps for the last two servos, but change their names to myservo2 and myservo3.
* Also make sure when adding the digital output pins, make sure to right in myservo2.attach(11) and myservo3.attach(12).
- At the top of the page click on verify to make sure there are no errors (there should not be any) and then click upload.
- If there are any problems uploading to the arduino duemilanove board, it needs to be reset.
  * To reset the board, all jumper cable wires must be removed. Then take one jumper cable wire, connect it to the five volt pin and the reset pin on the digital output pins of the arduino duemilanove board. Then, once the wires are hooked up, press the reset button. The board should be wiped clean.
- The four servos should be working. Now the servos need to be prepared to go into the teddy bear.

Step 6: Stabilizing the Servos

- First, before the arms and legs can go inside the bear, the servos need to be stabilized so that the server horns are spinning instead of the servos.
- Take a big piece of cardboard and using scissors cut two rectangles 3in. by 2in.
- Once the two pieces of cardboard are cut, tape the two arm servos to one piece of cardboard and the leg servos to the other piece with adhesive tape. 
- Then, to make sure that the servos will not move, take four 6.3cm x 0.9cm popsicle sticks and place two over the arm servos and two over the leg servos. Once the popsicle sticks are placed, tape those down as well with duct tape. 
- Now it is time to place the servos inside the bear.

Step 7: Filling the Bear

- The kind of bear that is good for this project would be about a medium sized bear with around five inch legs and four inch arms.
- Once the bear is chosen, find the seam on the bear’s back.
- Take a pair of scissors and cut the end of the thread and pull it out.
- Next, once the seam is broken, take all of the stuffing out of the bear.
- Then place the doll’s arms and legs inside the bear’s arms and legs very carefully. 
- To make sure the wiring will be safe when the arduino duemilanove board and bread board are place in the bear, tape down the wiring and, as an added precaution, place the two boards inside of a small plastic ziploc bag.
- Connect the USB Adapter Cord to the arduino duemilanove board and snake it out of the bear.
* The cord will later be connected to a RAYOVAC Charger (Model-PS73).
- After the two boards are safely inside of the bear, take a small recording device and record the desired message onto it.
- Place the device into the bear’s left ear once the message is recorded.
- Once the recording device is put into the bear, fill the bear with its stuffing again.

Step 8: Closing the Bear Up

- To close the seam back up use three 7/16 in. Snap Fasteners and one 7/16 in. Eyelet & Snap Fastener Pliers.
- Insert one ring prong into the pocket holder of the pliers.
- Then insert one socket into the metal holder with the raised center facing up.
- Position the pliers over the chosen area of the fabric along the seam and squeeze the pliers firmly.
- To apply a stud, insert one ring prong into the pocket holder of the pliers again, then insert one stud into the plastic holder with the ball facing down.
- Again, position the pliers over the fabric, this time directly across from the socket.
* Then, to close the seam, just push the two together and they should snap close. 
- Repeat those five steps for the last two snap fasteners.
* To make sure the seam is extra secured, feel free to run brown cotton thread through a tapestry-round-end needle and sew the seam up as well.
          * After sewing the seam, tie the end of the tread into a knot and cut the excess off.
          * Remember to be mindful and make sure the USB Adapter Cord is sticking out of the bear.

Step 9: Creating the Draw Sting Bag for the Battery

- The final stage of this project is to create a draw-string bag that will hold the RAYOVAC Charger.
- First, find an old t-shirt and, with a pair of scissors, cut off one of its sleeves.
* Be sure to leave the seam along the edge of the sleeve.
- After cutting the sleeve off, turn it inside-out and sew up the side that was just cut open with white thread and a tapestry-round-end needle. 
  * Do not sew the two seams at the top together.
          * However, remember to snip the sides of the seams, so that they are open.
- Once this is done, cut one small hole into each corner of the fabric.
* Only do this to the two corners that are below the seam.
- Now flip the bag right-side-out.
- Take the scissors and cut two pieces of string that are 15 in. long.
- Tie the end of one of the strings to a safety pin.
- Run the safety pin through one of the seams and have it loop back around through the other seam.
  * This should create a loop on one side of the bag and leave the two ends of the string coming out in the same direction.
          * Repeat these two steps for the other piece of string, only this time, loop it through in the opposite direction.
          * Remember to untie the string from the safety pin.
- Once both pieces of string have been run through the seams, loop booth ends of one piece of string through the hole in the corner of the fabric on that side and tie it into a knot.
- Do this for the other string as well.
- Before placing the charger into the bag, put four RAYOVAC AA batteries inside of it.
- After the charger is placed into the bag, run the other end of the USB Adapter Cable into the bag too and pull the bag closed.

Step 10: Making It Work

When the bear needs to be turned on, just open the bag, connect the adapter cable to the charger, and voilà. The bear is now a walking, talking toy ready to be played with.