Final Design of Clown Mechanism

We decided to use an approach that was inspired by a rube goldberg machine we saw online. We decided to have each of the three primary motions of the balls to be in separate planes. This allowed us to completely surround them, so they wouldn't fall out. For the transfer, the holes would overlap, and the ball would fall from one plane to the next. To minimize the number of overlapping links, we changed the linkage to this:

In this new design the ball begins in the hole on the pink link and is dragged along red raised piece attached the base. This mimics the jugglers upward motion. The ball is then dragged across the black link until it falls into that hole and dragged across the green raised piece. This is the arching motion of the ball in the air.  

The ball reaches the end of the green piece and falls into the hole of the blue link and dragged across the base imitating the juggler catching and releasing the ball.

Learning from our first design we used acrylic for the links and screws for the joints. The acrylic was a great surface because the ball was allowed to move easily across it. The acrylic allowed us build the links and raised surfaces to appropriate thicknesses. This also allowed us to embed screws in the raised pieces so they could easily be mounted to the base without compromising the smoothness of it. 

With the completed linkage system assembled and mounted onto a piece of 1/4" wood, we attached a "clown" to the links. This was done with pipe cleaners as seen in the picture. The arms are two simple dyads that follow the links representing the arms of the clown. As the 4-Bar mechanism moves the dyads move and appear to be throwing the ball with the clowns left hand and catches it with its right hand. For the mechanism to work a steel ball bearing is placed in the left hand and it is dropped from the right hand. To keep the clown continuously juggling a ball must be placed in the left hand every time the left hand reaches its lowest point.