Editing Abbott (section)

=== Tentacles ===
Well, that's why we're on this site.  This is a wiki for an open-source 3D printed tentacle device that I think we can adapt to this.  The tentacles are a clever, living hinge design that pops off the printer in one piece, and they articulate in just one axis.  There's also a hole running through the center of the tentacle which can be used to run, say, an LED light or another servo for the tentacle tip.

[[File:Dipstick.gif]]

The tentacles are cable-driven mechanisms.  The "spine" is the living hinge part that's moving, and that blue thing is a tensioning cap which lets you easily adjust spring tension in the tentacle.. The spine is threaded like a big bolt, and the tensioning has internal threads like a big nut.  More details/files/3D models on the [[Open-Source Design page|design page]].  The spine also has two holes that run all the way through on either side, and those are for running the string which puppeteers the spine.

On the other end of the pipe, there is a capstan -- this is like a drum, and a piece of non-stretching string runs from one end of the spine, down through the hole on that side, wraps around the capstan a few times, and then goes back through the ''other hole'' in the spine, before getting tied off at the tip.


It's one of those things where a picture is worth a thousand words

[[File:TrunkCam cross-section.png|800x800px]]


In the manual version, when you turn the handle one way or the other, it pulls the string and the tentacle tentacles.  For Abbott, I think we could basically put a servo on the capstan, get rid of the pipe, and make the base of the octopus something that has many pipe-like appendages, where we can put the