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