“Inspired by Disney’s Shaman Animatronic, as well as 3D printed designs by WillettFX and TheDutchEdition, I recently decided to build a 3D printed animatronic mouth design. Although the mechanics of the design are very simplified compared to the other projects I mentioned, I wanted to add a tongue to my design as it’s a big component in realistic looking lip-synchronisation. Also, I developed a few different control methods including a program which takes a sentence as an input and converts it into a sequence of visemes (mouth-positions), and another which uses real-time input from a microphone.
This project is a nice introduction to animatronic mouths, but there’s a lot of room for better control methods and more complex mechanics. I can’t wait to see what the community can come up with!
Supplies:
Mechanics
7x MG90s Micro Servo (2x https://amzn.to/2W3pnUJ)
2x MG996R Servo https://amzn.to/2SfjPFp
Various M2 and M3 screws
8x M2 Servo Ball-links: https://amzn.to/2Kq8fDK
4x M2 short pushrod connectors (best just to get M2 screws and saw them up!)
Teeth/Tongue
Tongue
Super Sculpey Beige https://amzn.to/2YdCLsa
FIMO Cherry Red https://amzn.to/3eZr8Lm
Teeth (optional)
FIMO Translucent White https://amzn.to/2YdoI5G
FIMO Sahara https://amzn.to/3cYzbGt
Pictured Gums
Super Sculpey Beige https://amzn.to/2YdCLsa
FIMO Cherry Red https://amzn.to/3eZr8Lm
Control
Nilheim Mechatronics Servo Tester
OR
Arduino Uno: https://amzn.to/2XoMolo
Adafruit PCA9685 16-Channel Servo Driver: https://amzn.to/2NQeNNT5.5mm
DC panel input - https://amzn.to/2NQeNNT5.5mm
Power supply (5A in this case to allow many servos to be driven) - https://amzn.to/2NQeNNT5.5mm
Potentiometer - https://amzn.to/2NQeNNT5.5mm”