7) Conclusion and Areas of Improvement

Because the position of each penguin component (i.e., body, wings and feet) is dependent on the height of the body of the penguin, the components had similar position, velocity, and acceleration profiles. Each component increased position (angular and linear) slowly and then had a decreased rapidly, due to the geometry of the snail cam.

Several improvements could be made to the mechanism. To increase the mechanism’s durability, the snail cam could be fabricated with cardboard. In addition, weights could be added to the body of the penguin, enduring the cam follower stays in contact with the cam at all times. Instead a square rod, using a circular rod would allow the crank to operate more smoothly.  It would also be easy to make this mechanism automated with a Kinect motor.