The goal of this project is to create an animatronic head
that can sense auditory signals and rotate and tilt up or down in order to face
the origin of the sound. This will be accomplished by mounting a minimum of six
microphones at specific positions within the head (front and back, top and
bottom, left and right) and writing code that will determine the angles of tilt
and rotation based on the difference in volume received by each pair of
microphones. Major tasks include building a head and neck that is mechanically
sound and has a sufficient range of motion, writing code that can accurately
calculate the angular position for the servo motors, and designing an
aesthetically pleasing appearance for the head and face. The coding aspect of
this project will be particularly challenging because the group members have
little experience with creating the desired output of the project with MATLAB,
specifically. For this reason, developing a greater proficiency in coding is a
key learning objective of this project. Other objectives include learning how
to use different machines in the machine shop, and how to properly wire the
motors, circuitry, and integrate it with the coding program.
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| Example of an Animatronic T-Rex. |
