Background

           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. 

Example of an Animatronic T-Rex.

As an animatronic machine, this project could have many applications in theme parks, museums, and other such tourist destinations. For example, it could be designed to resemble the head of a particular animal and placed in a themed exhibit at a zoo or a park to illustrate the animal’s keen sense of hearing. An attraction such as this could have significant entertainment or educational value, especially if directed towards younger children. The ability of a machine to locate a person or object by analyzing sound signals could possibly have military applications as well – for example, a vehicle traveling through an unknown and hostile territory (e.g. a city with many high rise buildings) could be equipped with a defense system that can pinpoint the location of a sniper by analyzing the sound of a gunshot, allowing soldiers to take cover and return fire quickly. Naturally, such a system would be much more complex than the one being created in this project.