Introduction and Description

“Ready to Fly” involves a mechanism with one degree of freedom. Rotation in the crank causes the penguin to rise and flap its wings. To accomplish this objective, the radius of a cam increases as it rotates. It pushes its follower, a straight link attached to a wide circular base, upward. This link contacts the body of the penguin at its neck, pushing the body upward with identical motion. The wings are attached on the interior of the body to a grounded link. They emerge from slots in the shoulders of the penguin’s body. As the penguin rises, it pushes up on the wings, which causes rotation about the grounded wing bases.

The interesting kinematic behavior of the penguin lies in the change in its velocity over the course of its rotation. The penguin gradually rises over ¾ of its rotation as the radius of the cam increases. Once it reaches its peak, it rides the descending point of the cam as it rapidly rotates away from beneath the center of the connecting link. Once the vertical position of the point is below the radius of the cam, the body once again rests on the surface of its glacier. It is now ready to repeat its motion once the cam pushes it back up in the air.