This 3D-printed robot teapot includes four servos, two in its hips and two in its ankles, to dance to the music it plays.
DIYers and computer scientist Paul-Louis Ageneau built a biped robot reminiscent of the BOB and Otto robots, but he put his own unique spin on the design as he isn’t a fan of their square shape.
Ageneau built his biped robot as a dancing robot teapot. We’re not sure if Ageneau built this in honor of Mrs. Potts, the ceramic teapot from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, but it’s certainly hard not to compare the two.
Ageneau even designed the 3D-printed teapot himself to ensure it was uniquely his. To do so, he used 3D-modeling software OpenSCAD to design the various parts for the robot and then 3D printed them in polylactide.
The robot includes four servos, two in its hips and two in its ankles, that are connected to an Arduino Pro Mini and powered by a 9V battery.
The robot teapot can even play its own music while dancing. Ageneau also details how he accomplished this, saying it can be done as long as you can connect a piezo speaker to your Arduino board.
The complete source for the project is available on Ageneau’s GitHub page. Below are the components used to build the dancing robot teapot and some photos of the building process.
Components
5-volt Arduino Pro Mini board (a compatible clone is fine)
5-volt switching regulator, also called UBEC in the hobbyist world. Don’t use a linear regulator, as it will be so inefficient it might overheat without proper cooling.
Four 3.7g micro servos, H301 or compatible
9-volt battery connector (with of course a 9-volt battery)
USB to UART bridge to program the robot
Dupont wires, M2 screws, pins, prototype board, and glue
Optional: A piezo sounder to play music
Hip joint servos attached to teapot platform.
Ankle servos placed in the legs
