I need to make a blinking model of the eye for an experiment. All I need to get the blinking motion right. The model of the eye is stationary but the upper eyelid needs to move up and down at a fixed interval.

The first prototype uses a gearbox to make the eyelid move up and down but it is not ideal as it is slow and continuous. What I want is to use something like a linear actuator to make the eyelid blink relatively quickly and immediately retract, pause for 10/15 seconds, blink, pause 10 seconds, and repeat ad infinitum. Is this possible?

I am looking for a timer/resistor/controller/anything capable of programming the timing, the best way to automatically reverse the linear actuator, and the best type of motor/gear box/anything to use.

Thank you for any suggestions.

Edit: I need the eye to test contact lenses on and will have tear fluid dispensed under the eye lid. The eye is a hollow sphere we will have warm water in. I need the mechanism to produce the blink that I can adjust to custom parts.

 

I just took a Furby apart the other day. If these were before your time, look 'em up. Big blinking eyes. (And a lot of other functions.)

 

How about a car door lock solenoid, switched by a MOSFET, triggered by a comparator fed by a RC time circuit?

 

I'd agree with the solenoid/MOSFET approach, and some kind of spring to pull the eye-lid back immediately after the blink. So some mechanical setup that would let the solenoid do it's then then be out of the way for the spring. A cam or something.

I would use a microcontroller instead of RC time circuits. PICAXE or Arduino would be the easiest route in the the uC's

 

Or a hobby servo... using a μC would be easy to control the servo.

Look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLystzKET18 for an example.
Look at my Instructable for how it was made... http://www.instructables.com/id/Eyes/

 

From the top of my head. I would have use some kind of electromagnet with a spring. to pull it back. Do you have some pictures to show us. Showing your current setting