Virtual Learning Automata

For this project, I am making a boat bob up and down and will have fish jumping and spinning in the front and back of the boat and it will be powered by spinning a wooden dowel. For this project, I am going to need cardboard, wooden dowels, hot glue, a plastic straw, and an Exacto knife.

Step 1: Cutting the Shapes

In this step, I made an outline for what I was cutting out. Then I cut the pieces out with an Exacto knife.

Step 2: Coloring

In this step, I colored the pieces to make them look nice.

Step 3: Frame of Automata

In this step, I started to build the automata. I hot glued the frame down to the base plate.

Step 4: Making the Boat

I hot glued the pieces of the boat together. Then I added a wave on the top of frame.

Step 5: Cutting the Dowels and Straw

In this step, I measured the dowels and cut them at 5cm each. I also cut small pieces of a plastic straw so the dowels could move easier going up and down. After cutting these I realized the cams would not spin the wooden dowel easily so I cut out 4 small circles.

Step 6: Making the Holes for the Dowel to Go Through

In this step, I poked holes into the circular objects and the side walls to the dowel will stay in place.

Step 7: Hot Glueing Wooden Dowels and Placing Them

In this step, I hot glued each wooden dowel to a circle. I then placed the small straws into the holes on the top and then hot glued them into place. Then I put dowel with the circle through the straw pieces so the circle was inside the box.

Step 8: Hot Glued the Cams Into Place

In this step, I put the full-sized dowel through the first side hole and put the cams on them put it through the other side hole. Then I used hot glue to keep the cams in the same place so they do not move while rotating. I put them where they would be able to spin the circle above them.

Step 9: Holders for the Boat

In this step, I made circular holders for the boat to sit on so it does not sit on the straws and then hot glued them in place so they would not move.

Step 10: Adding the Top Pieces

In this step, I put the boat on top on the middle two dowels and then hot glued each fish to an outside dowel. After that, you just have to spin the long wooden dowel and watch the boat move up and down while the fish move up and down and spin.

Step 11: Final Product: Video

Step 12: Final Product: Photo