The Tac Tac Toucan

The Tac Tac Toucan is a fun, candy-dispensing robotic toucan that is quite inexpensive to make. Its eyes light up when it detects a user within 0.5m of it, and after being detected, a user can press a button to prompt its candy-containing beak to open. The beak stays open for 7 seconds at a time, allowing a user to either take or replenish the candy in its beak. This guide will allow you to build your own toucan - the most challenging (and fun!) part will be sculpting the skeleton itself. As someone with zero experience in wire sculpture before creating this project, though, I'm confident that you'll be able to do it too with a bit of patience.

To construct the circuit that controls the Tac Tac Toucan, you will need an Arduino microcontroller, a Micro Servo Motor, an Ultrasonic Distance Sensor to detect user proximity, a push button to accept user input, 2 red LEDs to act as eyes, and a kit of wires to construct the circuit.

For the mechanical structure, you will need about 20 feet of 1.5mm diameter black aluminum wire (available here), a small cardboard box for a base, and something to weigh down the base (such as pebbles, vase filler, etc.), as well as tape and hot glue to adhere parts. You will also need a few sheets of corrugated cardboard; the cardboard that packages are delivered in should work just fine.

First, build this circuit as specified by the diagram. Make sure that the wires connecting the LEDs, Servo motor (denoted by the 'S'), and the Ultrasonic Sensor are relatively long: for the first 2, the wires should all be about 2', and for the sensor, about 1'.

The beak is composed of 6 pieces of standard packaging corrugated cardboard. Cardboard sections should be cut as shown (see image 1) with a utility knife and/or craft scissors.

The orientation of the cut in the cardboard is only significant for the top (A) and bottom (B) pieces of the beak. The length-wise axes of these pieces should be perpendicular to the ribs in the cardboard so that these sections can be curved to fit the beak profile.

Starting gently then gradually adding more force, roll sections A and B with your hands until the ribs along the length are visible and the piece is easy to curl. Fasten the beak components with hot glue such that the sides of the middle (A / B) are flush against the inner walls (C, D / E, F) as shown in image 2.

I created the skeleton using the black aluminum wire using the included reference image (image 1). 
I used my hands, pliers, and 1 continuous 32.8' wire to sculpt, in order:

i. Left leg + foot - See images 1 and 3 for visual guide.

ii. Tail

Form the wire into a fan-shaped outline for
 the tail, adding additional layers as desired.
Then, curl the entire shape upwards slightly. Refer to reference image or cover photo of finished assembly for visual aid. I included 2 fan-outlines and folded the tail reinforcement (see step vii) over the middle of each.

iii. Ribcage


Create the ribcage by forming a wire spiral about 4" in diameter with enough coils to satisfy the amount of detail you wish to include. I included 6 in my design. 


iv. Neck


Create the neck by forming a tightly coiled spiral around your finger, then forming it to the 'S' shape shown in the reference. 


v. Skull + 5" extruding beak reinforcement

After sculpting the skull and allowing a 12" extension, I turned the wire 
back around to complete the rest of the skeleton. This extension should be folded back towards the skull at about 5" from 
the skull, then folded outwards again to leave a 2" segment to clamp the 
bottom beak section to the skeleton. 
The extension should be 5" in total length, with 2 5" directly overlapping 
layers of parallel wire and 1 2" segment containing the end of the original extension. Sketch provided for clarification (see image 2)

vi. Spine


The spine was done in 1 pass along the body (not layered) starting at the skull and working through the ribcage until reaching the beginning of the tail. 


vii. Tail reinforcement


The tail is reinforced along the middle, the wire wrapping first below then above the preexisting outline.

Overall, the wire sculpture should only contain spiral-shaped sections that contain volume (e.g. ribcage, neck) and simple outline sections (e.g. spine, tail). Once the skeleton is assembled, attach it to the cardboard box base by taping down the feet. Allow the feet to hang 0.5" over the front edge.

Clamp the beak to the skeleton via the 5" extension protruding from the skull (see image 2).

Construct the circuit as specified by the circuit diagram without attaching the LEDs and servo motor, making sure to use long (1'-2') wires for the LEDs and 2 3-wire extensions on the servo motor so that they can reach the head. Connect the LEDs to 1.5' wire on both the positive and negative ends and attach a 100Ω resistor to each positive end (4 1.5' wires total, 2 resistors). Connect the servo motor to the 2 3-wire extensions.

Holding the servo and LEDs towards the head of the skeleton, pull all 3 sets of wires all the way through the neck and into the ribcage. Then connect them to the circuit as specified in the diagram (see Step 1).

Fold the LEDs over a skull coil (of your choosing) so that they are positioned like eyes - see top image of completed project for a visual guide. Connect the servo motor to the skeleton by the notch (as in included image) molding the sculpture as visually desired.

Tape the Ultrasonic sensor to the front of the cardboard box base. It should be as parallel to the front as possible to ensure accurate sensing performance.

Once the Tac Tac Toucan is assembled, it can be placed on any flat surface facing so that someone might pass by with intent to acquire candy. The Arduino within the base should be wired to a laptop having loaded the provided code below. The toucan should ideally be positioned at least 3 feet above the ground for practical access unless use is intended for children (in this case, children should be supervised as the machine is quite fragile).

To use it, a user should first activate it by standing within 50 cm and press the button located at the base to open the beak, then fill the beak with candies that can fit (0.5" or less in diameter). After the beak is stocked, a user must simply enter the distance range to turn on the toucan's eyes and activate it, then press the button to reveal its contents and take candy as desired within the 7 second grace period before the beak closes.