Kids design papercraft characters, plug in motorized boards, and perform improvised puppet shows where mouths move in sync with their voices. Older students mentor younger ones, co-writing scripts and bringing shared stories to life.
Animatronics combines creativity and STEM, but the barrier to entry is high — trained engineers, expensive parts, complex code. We wanted an affordable kit that lets K–6 students build talking paper robots and tell their own stories, with enough versatility for open-ended play.
Each kit includes a Linear Motor, a Rotational Motor, three control boards (Mic Board, Knob Board, LED Board), and a battery pack. Students attach servos to cardboard puppets with 3D-printed mounts — a flush mount for rotary motion (waving arms) and a zip-tie mount for linear motion (talking mouths).
Over 13 sessions across eight weeks, we worked with a Grade 6 class and a Grade 2 class at a Toronto elementary school. Grade 6 students first explored the kit independently, then mentored their Grade 2 "special friends" to co-create characters and perform shows.
Students were given boards and motors with minimal instruction and tasked with figuring out how they worked. They built characters inspired by animals, pop culture, and each other — including a Whack-a-Mole game and a puppet with an animated tongue.
Grade 6 students guided Grade 2 partners through building and performing. Most pairs preferred the Knob Board for precise control in noisy classrooms, though younger students showed particular wonder at voice-actuated motion.
Students wrote scripts collaboratively, designed backgrounds, and performed shows for their classmates. One pair wrote a fairy-and-troll story; another built a spaceship that evolved across sessions.
Before the classroom deployment, we ran wizard-of-Oz studies to test puppet designs and module configurations with participants building and performing papercraft shows.
IEEE FIE 2024 paper · SIGGRAPH Labs 2025 workshop paper · ARIA 2024 demo · PhD thesis (Ch. 3)