The book "Karakuri: How to Make Mechanical Paper Models that Move" by Keisuke Saka demonstrates how you can make moving robotic mechanisms out of paper. For my final project, I replicated "Ready To Fly", a model of a penguin moving up and down and flapping its wings, using the templates and directions provided in the book.
This model uses a horizontal axle that is rotated by an input force to turn two cams that have gradually increasing radii. A platform connected to the axle and the body of the penguin sits on top of the rotating cams, causing the up and down vertical motion of the penguin's body. There is another axle glued to the roof of the blue enclosure (the "igloo") and is stationary. This axle has the wings attached to the top but they maintain their ability to rotate. When the body of the penguin was placed over this stationary axle, the wings were placed through holes in the body around the armpit region. When the penguin's body moves up and down due to the cam rotation, the bottom of this slit pushes the wings up at a distance of approximately 0.6in. from the fulcrum of the wings (where they are glued to the stationary axle). This creates the flapping motion of the wings.
