Talking Raven - Animatronic for Halloween

Arduino Mega 2560

MP3 Trigger

<h3 >Overview</h3><p >I have always been fascinated by haunted houses and dark rides ever since and loved making decorations for our Halloween parties. But I always wanted to make something that moves and makes sound - so I built my first ever fully automatic animatronic: a talking raven bird that sits on a shelf and greets our party guests.</p><p >I started with doing rough sketches and made some basic designs in 3d. At this point I was having no idea yet how to do solve the electronics.</p><div id="gallery"><img id="gallery" src=https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/291f1ac0-df35-425d-98e7-01339347b4c3.jpg /><figcaption>First 2d / 3d Designs</figcaption><img id="gallery" src=https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/17a2e103-e01f-40ce-9515-ff5bb065d787.jpg /><figcaption> </figcaption></div><h3 >Step 1</h3><p >I knew that the body had to be lightweight to not over stress the servo motors, so I made the body parts out of plywood and paper. And the end of the board I built a control box for all motors and electronics.</p><div id="gallery"><img id="gallery" src=https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/798908ce-6e41-484c-aa20-89ff8bdd4d77.jpg /><figcaption>Building the raven body out of paper and wood based on the 3d design.</figcaption><img id="gallery" src=https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/7c0ac220-6297-4bed-94dd-f66a3d5793ad.jpg /><figcaption>Building the body out of wood and paper.</figcaption><img id="gallery" src=https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/6aeafa02-ebe4-42b4-b6dd-cac79cf001b8.jpg /><figcaption> </figcaption><img id="gallery" src=https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/f4a44f54-24b3-4757-9950-739660a5558f.jpg /><figcaption> </figcaption><img id="gallery" src=https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/be865e4d-c4ab-464a-bfe6-b25a346f05ac.jpg /><figcaption> </figcaption><img id="gallery" src=https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/9b021774-beed-4773-9427-76465b81275e.jpg /><figcaption> </figcaption></div><p >Placing most of the motors outside of the bird gives me easy access to all motors - only the small motor for the beak had to fit directly inside of the small head.</p><figure><img src=https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/87a672ab-78a9-461b-a199-cae36ab22ad8.jpg /><figcaption>The head houses its own servo for the beak internally.</figcaption></figure><p ></p><figure><img src=https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/ffb5a4dc-48a6-4db0-a5f1-095bce3a64e1.jpg /><figcaption>All other body parts are remotly moved over bowden cables</figcaption></figure><h3 >Step 2</h3><p >While looking for a solution for the controls I quickly stumbled upon the Arduino world. Despite having no background in electronics it just took me a couple of tutorials and readings on the internet to be able to write my first lines of code to control LEDs, servo motors and readout a motion sensor. For the sound I decided to use the MP3 trigger. A Maestro controller is taking care of the six motors and I added a LCD display and shift register for lighting up LEDs.</p><figure><img src=https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/ff41fd1b-940c-49ae-b609-7c7e80ba2464.JPG /><figcaption>Little helper inspecting my solder joints excercises. Not too impressed at first.</figcaption></figure><p ></p><figure><img src=https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/f3d87337-ed55-41e3-b10b-4334660ac246.JPG /><figcaption>Arduino Mega 2560, MP3 Trigger, Maestro Controller on the "electronics deck" right over the "motor bay".</figcaption></figure><p ></p><figure><img src=https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/e7295f72-b0d2-4d41-9287-7c32d79deb38.JPG /><figcaption>Everything hooked up.</figcaption></figure><h3 >Step 3</h3><p >Two passive infrared sensors and two ultrasound sensors feed the Arduino with informations of movement to sense people around the animatronic. I pre-tested the sequences of motion, lights and sound in Adobe Flash at 12.5 frames per second and than uploaded the animations into my own little engine on the Arduino. Every 80 ms it processes the next letter out of the strings and converts into commands for moving the body and the beak in sync with the sound and lighting effects.</p><p ><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/77589345@N05/29909410776/in/album-72157673164940172/">Watch a video of the first beak animations with sound.</a></p><p >I wrote several sequences that include random motion (looking around), specific motion patterns and saying sentences. There is a physical switch to turn the talking to normal crow/raven sounds and a potentiometer to control how often it talks and makes noise. </p><div id="gallery"><img id="gallery" src=https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/1310c851-9e5e-44af-b541-a80cc1f1ff08.jpg /><figcaption>Building the "stage" in the basement - a stone wall for the Raven to sit on top and look down on the mortals.</figcaption><img id="gallery" src=https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/734ab626-6bdc-457c-bf15-fb5d158fa6d2.jpg /><figcaption> </figcaption><img id="gallery" src=https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/f35669d0-169d-43a0-a10d-5bde337b868f.jpg /><figcaption> </figcaption><img id="gallery" src=https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/3b3165cf-b677-4e84-9881-9a5a47f896f7.jpg /><figcaption> </figcaption><img id="gallery" src=https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/54c8e146-700e-4a70-a76e-bfec45b80086.jpg /><figcaption> </figcaption></div><p ></p><figure><img src=https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/b9d36472-588c-47a4-81c9-3f91d81ecf01.jpg /><figcaption>Ready to scare some people - "Happy Halloween!"</figcaption></figure><p >I am very grateful that such accessible micro controllers like the Arduino exists and that there are so many helpful people that make great tutorials and share their knowledge online. I hope you like the project and I am looking forward to your feedback.</p><p ><span >More images of the building process can be seen </span><a href="https://www.flickr.com/gp/77589345@N05/60C579">here.</a></p><h3 >Video </h3><p >There is a short making of with more videos of the bird in motion on YouTube.</p><div class="se-component se-video-container __se__float-none" contenteditable="false" style="width: 100%;"><figure style="width: 100%; height: 56.25%; padding-bottom: 56.25%; margin: 0px;"><iframe frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aMipZJZThTU" data-proportion="true" data-percentage="100%,56.25%" data-size="100%,56.25%" data-align="none" style="width: 100%; height: 100%;" data-index="0" data-file-size="0" data-origin="100%,56.25%"></iframe><figcaption contenteditable="true"><div>Short  "Making of Video" - enjoy!</div></figcaption></figure></div><p ></p>

Talking Raven - Animatronic for Halloween

Moving and talking Raven Halloween prop that reacts to its environment.