Hello,
I'm thinking of using an Arduino Uno board to make a simplistic animatronic construct.
The goal is to replicate one of two things:
a) The mouth of an alien (see YouTube link for an example: Animatronic Alien (Preview Part3) - YouTube )
b) The mouth of one of those singing bass plaques (http://www.worldoffemale.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/singingfish.png)
I'm trying to make a prop that emulates a yelling motion.
The construct I want to build revolves around an animatronic mouth's movements.
I plan to have three mouth positions (neutral closed mouth, "cheese!", and "ahhh").
The mouth itself will be foam latex formed/painted/refined, with guitar wire (or something similar) running along the the lips. Perpendicular to these wires will be 3 more wires (points of articulation) that lead to the servos.
See my attachment for the visual on the lip-wire set up I had in mind to replicate. The latex lips/mouth dimensions would be around 2 x 3 x 1 (height, width, depth: all in inches).
I'd really like to make the motion be accompanied by sound, sound that is in sync to the motion. The motion of the lips would be specific/predefined/unchanging, and activated upon command (whether through a knob, or push button).
The concept would essentially run like this:
- System on
- [decision] activate? through knob potentiometer or push button
- sound activates, first mouth movement activates
- sound file still active, second mouth movement activates
- sound ends, mouth goes to neutral [or returns to first motion, then neutral]
As far as hardware, I believe I should have the following:
- Arduino board
- appropriate USB cord (to program the board's commands)
- breadboard
- jumper wires
- servos (5, maybe 3? if there is a more economic construct for the lip wire)
- external power supply for the servos (I do not know what would be best for five servos)
- Arduino USB-SD MP3 Shield (to allow sound?)
- speaker (to allow sound?)
- potentiometer / or push-button / or pressure sensor (activation?)
This may be all the things that I have thought of so far, but I do not know what else I might be missing. I've had some exposure to basic Arduino project out of the starter kit, but would really like to use this project of mine as a means of getting more experience.
I appreciate constructive criticism, and would be open to suggestions, and absolutely to any help or specific details to help see me through this project.
Thank you for your time!
edit:
Sorry, seems I forgot to include some additional info.
I plan on maybe using HS-55 servos, since I believe they will be able to pull/push on the chords set up to move the construct's lips. Unless i'm wrong, it should not be too heavy of a task for those small servos?
And to be clear, I currently do not have the Arduino Uno board. I've seen a RadioShack selling one for $30 minus the USB cable, and I have my own breadboard, but I don't know if the Uno would be the most economic in space and functionality for the kind of project i'm trying to complete. From my own research, it seems that the Uno should do the job, but I would like to hear other's opinions on my project and project goals.[/glow]