Main Content

An automaton is a self-operating machine, or a machine or control mechanism designed to automatically follow a predetermined sequence of operations, or respond to predetermined instructions. (obtained from wikipedia) As soon as I saw my very first automata I wanted to know how they work and if possible build my own. With this in mind, sometime ago I built a kit for 3D priting that allowed me to do that and called it simply Modular Automata. This design consists on a set of independent boxes, each one able do execute a type of motion, linear along the x axis, linear along the z axis and rotational. You can print and combine several of these boxes and add signs to them for that extra bit of customization, finally you simply turn a small knob and that motion is transmitted through all boxes thus bringing your custom automata to life. That project was designed in my software of choice at the time, Rhinoceros, but more recently I’ve been dabbling in Fusion 360 and this project seemed a perfect fit for Fusion 360 due to it’s parametric nature, while I do like Rhino, it’s a pain to change part of a design, that same task in Fusion 360 usually does not require much more than right-clicking on the feature and changing the required value. So for this instructable, I will show how I converted my original design from Rhinoceros to Fusion 360.”

Link to article