Introduction: The Iron Man Gauntlet: Turn Your Fantasies Into Reality

Have you ever watched Avengers and envisioned yourself as Tony Stark? Have you ever fantasized having a personal Iron Man blaster? If so, you are in luck! This is a tutorial for making a fully functional and custom-fitting Iron Man glove and forearm in an affordable way and from the comfort of your home! This project was made by students Apuroop, Nat, and Jiya of Ms. Berbawy's Principles of Engineering Class (POE) at Irvington High School. Please go support our program at Berbawy Makers.

Supplies

Materials:

Software:

Tools:

Step 1: CAD Model

For this entire build we modeled the gauntlet to go on Apuroop's hand.


Light Diffuser

  • We created a circle around ⅓ the size of Apuroop's palm, and then made a concentric circle with a diameter 1 cm smaller than the original circle, then we extruded the ring upward. We also extruded the inner circle upward by 5 mm for the light to defuse at the bottom.

  • We measured our LEDs, and made 2 perpendicular holes at a tangent plane from the inside. Then we extruded the holes both ways to cut openings for the LEDs, and used 0.3 mm tolerance to fit them properly. Additionally, we added a fillet to the edge of the inner circle.

Palm

  • We split Apuroop's palm into a few intervals, and measures the height and width of those points. By making abstract shapes resembling his palm’s size, we made offset planes with the distance between each interval. Then, we lofted these planes together and created a shell to hallow out the palm piece.

  • Using the dimensions of your light diffuser for the center, we made a circular shape and extrude it through the bottom of the palm.
  • To make a hole for Apuroop's thumb, we measured the angle made by the joint of his thumb to his palm. We created an angular plane at this angle, and extrude a hole with the size of his thumb's base through the palm piece.

  • We cut the palm piece in 2 segments using the cut tool in Prusa Slicer.

Fingers

  • We used this tutorial to create the fingers, and tailored each to the proper size by measuring Apuroop's fingers, documenting the dimensions, and then using a non-uniform scale factor on the original model that was CADed with the help of the tutorial.

Forearm

  • We measured Apuroop's wrist and the part of the forearm we wanted the gauntlet to end at. We created 2 shape, one for the "circumference" of his wrist and one for the "circumference" his forearm and offset them the length of his forearm. We then lofted them together. We added a 0.4 cm shell to hollow out the center.
  • We created a open triangular design on bottom of the wrist end for flexibility, and then cut top and bottom into 2 printable shapes where we added dowel + dowel holes to connect top and bottom parts together.
  • To account of the size of the servos, we used this Grabcad model and added an attachment to hold the servos.


  • A flap that locks into the forearm is then attached to the servo parallel to its horn, where we created prongs for servo to attach and added joints on the CAD model to gage the mobility of the flap. 

  • Finally, we extruded a flat edge at the front of the forearm component to glue the launcher, whose design in shown below.

Launcher

  • Inspired by a cotton ball launcher, we made a fully 3D printed version of it by making a tube with hooks and a sliding portion whose tension is provided by rubber bands
  • We added a mounting plate to attach it to the flat portion of the forearm 

Step 2: Printing the Models

We used a Prusa Mini 3D Printer with Prusament PLA to print our designs. The filament settings we used are shown above, but they may differ depending on the environment. We printed our parts upright with organic supports, as they are easier to remove and have a lower print time. To remove the supports, we used pliers and sand paper on the rough edges.

Step 3: Circuit Diagram

The main component of our circuit is the Arduino Uno R3. As shown above, the circuit is very simple. It consists of Microservos which are connected to the digital pins. The pins are controlled by the flex sensors that are connected to the analog pins. There are 2 leads which connect to the soldered LEDs in the light diffuser ring, integrating it into the circuit.

We have included a picture with a page of our engineering notebook where we have some of the documentation of our working circuit.

Step 4: Coding With C++

We coded the Arduino Uno in C++ with Arduino IDE. Our code is attached above.

First, we tested the flex sensors by printing input and output values. We then used the difference in the range of the values to translate to 0 to 90-degree servo rotation. Input and output values vary depending on the resistance so we adjusted the read values to match the printed values. It took a lot of trial and error, but the servos eventually responded to the activation of the flex sensors.

Step 5: Assembly

To assemble our individual parts, we used elastic straps, 2 rubber bands, Velcro, and hot glue.

  • First, we tied rubber bands through each of the launcher's holes, and then stretched them to the hooks. Then, we glued the mounting plate to the flat edge.
  • From the inside, we glued the light diffuser on top of the hole in the palm.
  • We put the elastic straps between the 2 forearm parts and glued them on, leaving a little tension for an easy wearing and removing process. We did the same for the palm piece.

Before we assembled all the parts on Apuroop, we made sure to double check that all the wires were properly attached and tested that the code was working.

To put it on we pulled the straps on the forearm to put it over Apuroop's wrist, and pulled the palm on in the same manner. Next, Apuroop placed his fingers into the designated finger parts. We placed the flex sensor between his two thumb components. Finally, we powered the circuit and we had a working gauntlet!!

Step 6: Iron Man Gauntlet Video

Now you are just like Iron Man! We love you 3000 <3