Robotic marionette system: from mechatronic design to manipulation

Marionettes are string-operated puppets. It is an ancient and universal form of performing art which still evolves today. From the engineering perspective, the marionette is a wire-driven multi-limbed under-actuated mechanism that exhibits rich dynamic behaviours under the influence of gravity. This article introduces the design of a novel robotic marionette system that manipulates the puppet through mechatronic means instead of the human puppeteer. The marionette may create life-like movements according to programmed motion commands issued from the computer and a motor-driven puppeteer mechanism. Marionette motion generation is achieved and demonstrated using behavior-based approach through three ways: posture primitives, multilayered motion synthesis, and motion transformation. Limitations and potentials of this robotic marionette system are also discussed