PIC Controlled Animatronic Hawk

Overview

This project illustrates an animatronic hawk that can be controlled by a PIC16F627 microcontroller by forming and sending RC signals to the servos of the hawk.

Details

The movie “Lady Hawk” uses this animatronic hawk project as one of the props. It contains 7 axis motion which include the 3D head motion, body, beak, tail, and wings. This makes the bird look more real and alive. It can also be controlled through radio transmission as it was built with special effects.

In the design, the RC aircraft controllers used were made to interface with the designed and built microcontroller board. the voltage signals are sent to the radio controllers via summing resistor networks and op-amps. These signals are sent by the controller board which is built around a PIC16F627 microcontroller. The stages of development undergone by the microcontroller include testing the op-amp circuit in the breadboard, using a fresh PCB, and populating the board with components that form a test rig. This uses Zero Insertion Force (ZIF) socket.

When the hawk is functioning under automatic control, its motions are rather mechanical looking. This is due to the difficulties of manipulating simultaneously several axes of motion.