NATIONAL OPEN UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA

(NOUN)

SEMINAR ON
EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES

TOPIC
ANIMATRONICS

SUBMITTED BY
NAME FINEBONE HENRY NNANNA
MATRICULATION NUMBER NOU183022235
FACULTY SCIENCES
DEPARTMENT COMPUTER SCIENCE
COURSE CODE CIT403
COURSE TITLE SEMINAR ON EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES

ABSTRACT
Animatronics is a developing technology which involves the disciplines of Mechanical
Engineering, Electronics Engineering and Animations to produce real life size replicas of the
object working on robotic technology. Animatronics technology creates animated objects
working on mechanisms which will seem and sense alive. These objects are more realistic
compared to the robotic machines. The basic mechanism of these machines is a combination of
different mechanical and electronic components. They can be powered by electrical motors,
pneumatics or hydraulics, and their controlling mechanism can be manually controlled or
computer controlled. The animatronic objects are made of mechatronic structure with fully
functional and controlled mechanisms covered with detailed and colored skins. The alive nature
of the animatronic object is as a result of artistically designed costuming of the object.
Animatronics provide real life mirage to the non-living structures. This paper provides review on
different aspects of animatronics. In this work, a wide overview of animatronics with different
present and future applications of the field of animatronics is rectified.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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 Cover Page ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- i
Abstract ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ii
1. Introduction ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1
2. Main body --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2
2.1 Applications, Goals and Limitations of Animatronics -------------------------------- 2
2.2 Formation of Animatronics --------------------------------------------------------------- 3
2.3 Case Studies -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5
2.4 Building Your Own Animatronics ------------------------------------------------------ 6
3. Conclusion ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8
References ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9

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 1. INTRODUCTION
Animatronics is a combination of animation and electronics. What exactly is an animatronic?
Basically, an animatronic is a mechanized puppet. It is a modern variant of the automaton and
are often used for the portrayal of characters in films and in theme park attractions. Animatronics
are used in situations where a creature does not exist, the action is too risky or costly to use real
actors or animals, or the action could never be obtained with a living person or animal. It may be
preprogrammed or remotely controlled.
The animatronic may only perform a limited range of movements or it may be incredibly
versatile. The scare created by the Great White coming out of the water in "Jaws" and the tender
otherworldliness of "E.T." are cinematic effects that will not be easily forgotten. Later
animatronics was used together with digital effects. Through the precision, ingenuity and
dedication of their creators, animatronic creatures often seem as real to us as their flesh-and-
blood counterparts. Before the term "animatronics" became common, they were usually referred
to as "robots". Animatronics stem from a long tradition of mechanical automata powered by
hydraulics, pneumatics and clockwork. Animatronics are used in situations where a creature does
not exist, the action is too risky or costly to use real actors or animals, or the action could never
be obtained with a living person or animal.
Animatronics has been developed as a career which combines the disciplines of
Mechanical Engineering, Casting/Sculpting, Control Technologies, Electrical/Electronic
Systems, Radio Control and Airbrushing. Some colleges and universities do offer degree
programs in Animatronics. Individuals interested in animatronics typically earn a degree in
Robotics which closely relate to the specializations needed in Animatronics Engineering.
The fusion of animatronics with artificial intelligence results in androids, as is usually
known, robots that imitate human behavior. But it's not only the movements that look very real,
but also, it seems real, thanks to the synthetic skin used, and makeup. The Disney company is
about to use animatronics and artificial intelligence to simulate one of their characters in real life:
Pascal, one of the characters in the movie Tangled. On the other hand, Dubai is already using
police robots created by PAL Robotics.
Animatronic characters appear in both films and video games, most notably in horror
genre and survival horror video games that generally feature possessed animatronics as
antagonists. Films like ‘The Banana Splits Movie’ and ‘Willy's Wonderland’, Short films like

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‘Wally's Wonderland’ and ‘The Hug’, Television programmes like ‘The Capicola Gang’ and
‘Hoo-Ha's Jamboree’, Video games like ‘Five Nights at Freddy's’ all contain animatronic
characters. “We want to stay with Animatronics because it gives you such a wonderful feel of
Chucky’s movement. It feels like something that has been brought to life, as opposed to a smooth
piece of animation”, said David Kirschner.
Chapter one of this seminar paper contains the introduction, chapter two contains the
main body of the work, whereas chapter three is the concluding aspect of the seminar paper.

2. MAIN BODY
2.1 APPLICATIONS AREAS, GOALS AND LIMITATIONS OF ANIMATRONICS
Application areas
1. Animatronics is used to create enthusiastic creatures e.g. dinosaurs, hostiles etc.
2. Animatronics is used in films, theme parks and museums to attract visitors and to entertain
them.
3. Animatronics is used in the medical field for organ replacements.

Goals
This technology is majorly used by the entertainment industry but it also has huge applications in
the medical field. The aim of this technology is to achieve the efficient degree of freedom to
copy human action, voice or expressions. Animatronic objects have the capability of voice
animation also. These Machines have a lower working cost than humans and if carefully
designed, they are capable of anything that man and animals can’t do.

Limitations
1. They are complex, difficult to build and expensive to buy
2. They require electricity or compressed air, and they may wear out
3. The cheap ones lack realistic movement or external coverings
4. People can damage them if they can get close and touch them
5. The mechanical noises they produce may ruin the effect
6. Mostly the need for multiple antennas and most of them aren’t weatherproof

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 2.2 FORMATION OF ANIMATRONICS
Creating an animatronic object is very critical task and involves many different methodologies
consisting many difficult and important steps.
Design
In design step, the basic sketch or concept of the object is finalized. It is generally sketched on
paper and then it gets is final and dimensioned shape in a drawing software (2D or 3D). Figure
2.1 shows a basic sketch on paper and by software.

Figure 2.1: Basic sketch of object on paper and using Blender software.
Sculpting
In this stage, a sculpting of the designed sketch using clay of wax is done, the sculpting is done
with care to give real life shape to the object. Usually, mixture of Wax and clay is used to sculpt
human size figures to avoid stiffness problems of the clay and to give soft finish to the model.

Figure 2.2: Sculpting

Mold making

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This modeling department takes the form by sculptor and it works to produce skin of the
character by using this mold. The molding is usually done in single piece but for complex parts
multiple piece molds are also used. As this process is very complex it is done carefully to match
exact dimensions as per the design. It is generally a handmade work performed by skilled
sculptures which is why this process is time consuming. Figure 2.3 shows the modeling process
of a human model.

Figure 2.3: Mold Making

Armature Fabrication
In this stage, body armature is created and assembled by bolting, screwing or welding processes.
In this stage, combination of art and technology contributes to the generation of live structure of
the object. The selections of different components of base mechanism like actuators, valves, flow
controls and hoses take place in this stage. The good fabrication of mechanism leads to durable
and reliable installations of animatronic objects. Figure 2.4 shows an armature fabrication.

Figure 2.4: Armature Fabrication

Costuming
As its name suggests, costuming is the process in which the outer appearance of the figure is
provided. It is a process of applying outer layer (skin) on an animated figure, so that it may differ

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from an actual robot to look more like a real-life character. In order to give live appearance,
materials like wax, leather, silicone, polyurethane and plaster are used. For more detailed
costuming, smells and colors can also be added on the skin. Figure 2.5 shows the process of
costuming, in this skin is attached on the skeleton of the Figure 2.4.

Figure 2.5: Costuming

Programming
Costuming produces appearance of the figure but the control of movement and sound of the
object is done in the programming stage. The Programmer sets the movement of the object using
a control system and its movements are pre-recorded by the programmer as per the requirements
of the application. Programming is a complex phenomenon as it includes animated actions, its
timing, audio timing and control of different actuators in the mechanism, as animatronic objects
are motorized devices that are preprogrammed to perform single or series of tasks. The control
mechanism can be manually or by remote.

Figure 2.6: Programmed object

2.3 CASE STUDIES

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1. Jurassic Park: Long before digital effects appeared, animatronics were making cinematic
history. But it was in Jurassic park that the best possible combination of animatronics and digital
effects were used together. Spinosaurus was a new dinosaur animatronic created for "Jurassic
Park III" by Stan Winston Studio (SWS). SWS worked with Universal Studios and the film's
production team to develop the Spinosaurus design. The amazing process that creates and
controls a huge animatronic like this dinosaur are Jurassic Machines, Dinosaur Evolution, In the
Beginning, Creature Creation, Putting it together, Making it Move, and Monster Mash.
2. Disney Theme Park

Figure 2.7: Disney Theme Park

3. Wild West: 2016 released American television series showed use of animatronics robots
which are used in theme parks to give real life experiences to visitors. This show represents
unethical use of robots for the pleasure of rich and wealthy people. Use of Animatronics
technology for this application though sounds impossible but its possibilities cannot be firmly
denied.
2. Wireless Module Hand: In this study, a human hand is used for working in hazardous
environments. This hand provides more safety in the industrial operations. This Animatronic
hand is created by using wireless technology which is based on Xbee module as well as Arduino-
UNO board. These type of applications can be very helpful for the industrial applications.
3. Human Tongue and Vocal track: It is a medical application of the animatronic object. This
model has a movable tongue and jaw, they are connected to a fixed hyoid bone and a skull, this
object is able to produce sound by using auditory feedback. This object is also capable of
gathering information about the amount of energy required to produce specific speech gestures.

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 2.4 BUILDING YOUR OWN ANIMATRONICS
Everything you need (except batteries and imagination) is included in the easy-to-use kit below.
Connect the cable to your PC's serial port, install the software and you're ready to start. No
soldering or programming skills required. If you can use Windows, you can use this
Animatronics Kit. The software allows you to record the movements of hobby servos (up to two
billion moves) and play them back exactly as recorded. Make your creation come to life!

Figure 2.8: Animatronics kit

Kit Includes: System Requirements:
486 or higher processor (Pentium
Servo controller circuit board
recommended)
Two Hitech HS-300 hobby servos 8 megabytes of RAM (32 recommended)
Mini SSC Panel v1.2 software 3.5" 1.44MB floppy
Battery Pack Windows 3.x, 95, 98 or NT
Two servo horn assembly packs Available serial port
Illustrated Instruction manual 20 Megabytes of hard drive space

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Figure 2.9: Hardware and software interface

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 3. CONCLUSION

This technology was created only few decades before but its seeds were found in the imagination
of man from centuries. Till date more than 10,000 animatronic creatures have been created for
different tasks. The animatronics has been implemented for mostly entertainment purpose but it
has huge potential in medical industry also. Animatronic can be helpful for organ replacement
and initial success is observed in the development of vocal organ and tongue. More attention in
this field can lead to more excellent achievements in the field. In entertainment industry, this
technology is vastly used, this technology provides safety as well as creative freedom to the
directors. This technology is proven to be very helpful and promising in the entertainment
industry.
In future, it is expected to use animatronics on a very large scale. The technology is
continuously upgraded and in a near future, fully developed animatronic creatures with artificial
intelligence can be developed for human assistance or entertainment. In the entertainment
industry, demand of animatronic objects is increasing, in the film industry, animatronic objects
not only save money but also allows them a creative freedom by proving dramatical actions
which are otherwise not possible. These animatrons will have the ability to entertain and may
take safety responsibility and later on they would be capable of thinking and reasoning like
human beings with the help of artificial intelligence.

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 REFERENCES

1. Chandrashekhar Kalnad, “Review on Animatronics”, Imperical Journal of Interdisciplinary

Research (IJIR), Vol.2, No.- 9, pg: 1168-1170.
2. B. Uma Maheswari, “Animatronics and Multi-Disciplinary Technologies”, International
Journal of Advance Research in Computer Science and Software Engineering (ijarcsse), Vol.
5, No. 3, pg: 1260-1262.
3. Dr. Shreenivas Jog, Abhisek Dwivedi, Sarang Ashtankar, Govind Gautam, “Animatronic
Hand Using Wireless Module”, International Research Journal of Engineering and
Technology (IRJET), Vol.3, No. 5, pg: 1529-1531.
4. Robin Hofe, Roger K. Moore, “AnTon: an Animatroniv Model of a Human Tongue and Vocal
Tract”, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/221480122.
5. Asad Yousuf, William Lehman, Phuoc Nguyen, Hao Tang, “Animatronics and Emotional
Face Display of Robots”.
6. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0475784/
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animatronics

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