Week 8 Progress

    The contraption responsible for the movement of the animatronic device is constructed this week. The rails and the piston are screwed into the board and tested for their functionality together. The speakers provided by the Innovation Studio are programmed into the Arduino and tested as well. Though the speakers work, the volume is not very loud. The other parts (e.g. hands) of the animatronic device are also constructed with simple materials.

Objectives:

• Install the rails
• Program audio
• Created hands

Installing Rails in Conjunction with the Piston

    We are currently in the process of creating the rail contraption that will propel our animatronic device forward. The rails are screwed into a wooden platform and are testing to be in working condition. The final design should of this portion of the design will look like the image in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1: Piston Contraption

Program the Audio

    We test the speakers from the Innovation Studio for its functionality, and they do indeed work! Though the speakers work, the volume is unfortunately very soft. In our design of the animatronic device, the scream that the nun makes should be loud enough to be heard clearly from at least a few feet away. We will either get amplifiers or make other plans to enhance the sound volume.

Completing the Finer Details of the Body

    We worked on the hands as well. We created the hands from cardboard, thin wooden sticks, foam, and gloves. A hot glue gun was used to firmly stick the parts together. The final product will be covered by a glove to hide the hand's frame and make it look like a smooth hand. The frame of the hand is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Hand Frames

Week 7 Progress

    During the previous weeks, we focused on the minute details of the project design. We had only started working on the small parts like the arms. More progress was done in creating the tangible product during this week's session. We constructed the main framework for the animatronic device, as seen in Figure 1 below. We also worked on the electric circuitry, though it was on a much slower pace since the items required were not found in the Innovation Studio.

Objective:

• Construct the body
• Work on electric circuitry

Figure 1: Comparison Between the
Animatronic Framework and a Person

Framework Is Constructed

     After much work on the PVC pipes, the main component of our design is completed. The animatronic device's "spine" spans about 5 feet 5 inches. When comparing it with an actual human, the size seems just about correctly proportional, as revealed in the image to the left. All that is left of this creation is to put clothes on it and fill up the body to look like a real person. The finer details, such as the hands, must also be worked on.

Electric Circuitry

     Getting the piston to work with the electric circuitry we have now is the main issue to solve. The piston would work perfectly with air, but the Innovation Studio does not provide that power at an easily accessible location, so we have to use different means to power our device. Our plan is attempting to make the piston work by soldering solenoid to connect with the breadboard and Arduino. Air from compressor goes through the solenoid to the piston to power it. A general plan of the circuiting of the Arduino with the solenoid circuit.

Figure 2: Schematic of Solenoid Circuit

Week 6 Progress

    The main purpose of this week was coding, mainly because our main personnel for the mechanical  body is sick and our cautiousness prevented us from committing to huge adjustments. We did not want to make any irrevocable changes to the materials for the body portion of the project before we consulted with our mechanical design personnel. Other than that, we did some minor work such as making the movable eyebrows.

Objective:

• Program Arduino code for the eyes
• Create the eyebrows
• Placement of LED Lights for the eyes

Figure 1: Arduino Code for Fading LED Lights

Coding Arduino

 During this week, we wanted to program the Arduino code for the fading LED lights, which is the unique feature of the animatronic device's eyes. The basic Arduino "Fade" code was adjust to fade the LED lights in and then remain lit until the entire sequence was reset. The code our lead programmer procured is displayed in Figure 1.

 

 

 

Making the Eyebrows

    Though we bought a mask for the animatronic device, we wanted some of the features to move, specifically the eyebrows. We obviously could not make the eyebrows in the mask move, so we made a separate pair to use. These eyebrows, shown in Figure 2, will be connected to a servo motor, enabling movement. A sketch of this plan is depicted below in Figure 3.

Figure 2: Eyebrows

Figure 3: Design Plan of Eyebrow's Motors

   From the plan in the image above, the motor will be seated on a shelf placed within the head. The motor will be attached the board by either glue or screws to prevent the motor from sliding as the animatronic device functions. Because the motors are used to move the eyebrows, they must be placed right against the back of the face of the head to work correctly.

 Placement of LED Lights

   Figure 4 reveals the head of the animatronic device with the LED lights attached, though the new set of eyebrows are currently not placed on the face. There are holes in the mannequin head for the LED lights to fit in to look as natural as possible. The mask will need to be permanently attached to the head to ensure that the animatronic device's head looks as intended.

Figure 4: Animatronic Device's Head
with Mask and LED Lit Eyes

 

Week 5 Progress

    The build phase continues! It is now week 5 of the design duration. In this week, we continued to build our animatronic, starting by small preparations such as cutting some components and drilling holes into others. As we do every week, a potential reassessment of our design is discussed to map out any blurry details that made no sense or were impractical. We had an issue with meeting the minimum amount of motors, but the problem was solved on the same day. By the end of this session, we want to list out any materials or actions that still require attention for next week's session.

Objectives:

• Continuing the build phase
• Reassessing the design

Build Phase Status

    In this session, our group cut out the PVC pipes for the arms and drilled holes for the "joints." We got screws of the right size to attach the PVC together while simultaneously allowing rotation. The main problem to fix in regards to the arms is to have a limiter set to prevent the arms from swinging in the opposite direction and from overreaching a certain range. The range has yet to be set, but completing this job will not be difficult.

   For the head portion of our design, we bought a hollow mannequin head to use as shown in Figure 1. We adjusted its size by cutting its neck to fit our overall design. A hole was made in the back of its head to have an opening to place small motors used for moving the eyebrows. The alterations made can be seen in Figure 2 due to the large opening on the back of the head. This opening will also make wiring the LED easier to accomplish.

Figure 1: Front of the Head

Figure 2: Back of the
Head with Hole

    We cut out a flat wooden platform, the one shown in Figure 3, for the head to rest on to enable its rotation. These actions are just the preliminary preparations for further action.

Figure 3: Wooden Platform to Place
Motor in Neck

Reassessment of Current Design

     Despite being halfway through the project duration, new ideas and design reassessments still emerge. A relatively new idea for the arms is to use bolts and nuts to enable the swinging motion.  The arms will move by the force of gravity than by a motor for a simpler design. Design the exact way the arms function is the biggest hurdle our group has to face, but now that we have this new plan, less stress can be placed on this feature and be delegated to other parts.

    Originally, we planned to enable our animatronic to move its mouth, but this idea will be scrapped because of its incompatibility with our materials, specifically our mask. Our mask only has holes for the nose and the eyes, so making a new hole for the mouth would make the mask look tacky. However, the eyebrows of the animatronic are still moving in accordance with our original design. The main problem now is wiring, coding, and fitting a speaker in the head to enable a scream-like audio. The idea to put the speakers in the head might be scrapped if we cannot procure a small speaker for our project.

    New ideas were brought up to incorporate lighting and audio in the body portion of the design. We might install some lights in the background, potentially in the shape of a fake satanic circle, to give our the area around our animatronic a creepy vibe. The audio for it will just provide a background ambience. If we played creepy church music, for example, the suspense is already instilled into the audience before they meet our animatronic.