Hello, I am a freshman in mechanical engineering, and this semester we've been learning how to use an Arduino.
Currently, our group is working on a project.
Our idea is a fan that is on an arm. The arm is connected to the wall using a suction cup. That arm has a motion - It moves on the x-axis. Something similar to this -
So it has a servo motor that spins, and so does the fan on top of it. But instead of being attached to a box, it is attached to an arm that you stick on a wall. We might also add another servo motor on the end of the arm (near the wall), so that it would spin on the y-axis.
My main concern right now is face detection. I am pretty sure an Arduino does not have the capabilities to process that much work. I've been researching today and found a couple of things that could help us.
1 - ESP32-CAM - a microcontroller that has AI features for face detection. The ESP32-CAM sees a face at (x, y) in the frame. It calculates whether the face is left/right or up/down from the center. Then it sends signals to servo motors that move the fan base left or right (and maybe up/down if we add another servo).
2 - MU Vision Sensor
The MU Vision Sensor detects a face and finds its position. It sends coordinates (X, Y) to the Arduino. Moves servos left/right to follow the face.
3 - Gravity: HuskyLens K210 AI Camera
HuskyLens detects a face and reports the bounding-box center (X, Y). Arduino reads that X and Y coordinates Microcontroller maps X and Y → servo angle and drives one (pan) or two (pan+tilt) servos so the fan physically rotates to face the detected X and Y.
What other things could you recommend?
Anything we should be aware of?
What would be the hardest parts of this project?
