THE STRUCTURE
The structure of the prototype could be divided into three big parts.
The pulleys, that have to determine the movements of the MUBU, keep them suspended and permit the passage of the electronic signals to the computer.
The second is food, that through acceptance or refusal has to affect the MUBU and let them sing.
Third part, of course, are MUBU which had size, weight and magnetic issues.
The pulleys:
Modified pulleys.
The prototype uses modified pulleys from rolling shutters and flat cables to recreate the movements of MUBU.
A white plastic guide for the flat cables is added to the pulleys. Each pulley has two grooves. One is used for the part of cable that goes from the pulley to the MUBU, the other one is used for the rest of the cable that goes behind the structure to the Arduino. This solution allows to use a unique cable which is continuosly rolled and unrolled, avoiding to buy expensive special plugs.
The food:
This magnet has a strength of 6 kg.
Strong magnets are used for acceptance or refusal of food by MUBU.
The magnets are fixed inside the food and the MUBU, with wood cases (picture above).
The food, inside view.
Those cases have a couple of screws that allow to be opened to modify the magnet’s position if needed.
Once the magnets were placed inside the food, the cases were closed from the “rope side”.
The food sticks to the main structure on a metallic sheet.
Mubu:
Flat MUBU close-up.
The MUBU are made in wood, except for the mouth and the details, where Forex was used.
To manage the components inside the four MUBU also after suspension, we used a couple of pivot on the back side, so the MUBU can be open and closed.