Goal:
Our goal with this project is to construct a working animatronic for a Halloween maze. Our animatronic has certain requirements to meet and constraints to work with. More details about the specific details are available in the Background page.
Our Team's Design Plan
Head
Head rotates in a 360 angle:
Programming the head's rotation will be easy, according to Charlie, our lead programmer. We plan to have the animatronic, once the sensor has been triggered, to rotate its head then lunge forward quickly.
Eyes contain LED lights that turn on and off:
At one point in our design, we wanted to make the eyes move sporadically, but that action would be hard to program and difficult to make. If we went with this idea, we would have to make a new, intricate setup for the eyes to work. Because of its difficulty, we decided to scrap that idea and just let the eyes turn on and off with LED lights, as seen in Figure 1.
Eyebrows move up and down:
Having the animatronic move its eyebrows is a detail that stuck with the design plan from its creation to the present. This portion of the design will be simple since it is just attaching wires to a pair of fake eyebrows and programming it to move appropriately.
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| Figure 2: Design of Speakers in Head |
Audio plays (potentially a scream):
The small speakers will be placed inside the head to allow the audio to emit from the animatronic's mouth, as depicted in Figure 2. However, we found out that the speakers provided at the Innovation Studio were too low in volume, so we may have to tweak it or find another solution to complete this audio requirement.
Body
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| Figure 3: Depiction of Lunge and Arm Movement |
Lunges forward:
Our animatronic will lunge forward to scare its audience. Originally, we had a metal support attached to the animatronic that makes its lunge by leaning forward. However, this movement seemed like an intricate method to do something simple, so we scrapped this idea and used a new idea. Now, this lunging movement will be done by have the base of our tangible be placed on rails and have the piston push the animatronic across the rails to project it forward. Not only will the animatronic be slightly faster, it will also be easier to construct. We do not need counterweights since the animatronic is not hanging on the metal support anymore.
Arms move:
Thinking of a way to make the arms move is the most difficult part of the design plan. We struggled with settling on idea for a few weeks until making a firm choice. After much discussion, the arm movements will be powered by gravity. The arm's joint (i.e. the elbow portion) will be made by drilling a hole into the ends and attaching the two pieces with a bolt and nut to form one arm. This method will allow the arm to freely swing at the elbow area. To prevent the arm from swinging too far or swinging backwards, we will put a stopper on the side of the upper arm to prevent the forearm from swinging backwards. Then, we will thread a string inside the PVC pipes so that the strings are in tension at the max angle the arm will be in when swinging forward.
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