Animatronic Eyes – Curious Gaze

A gaze that seems to come to life

A pair of robotic eyes that look around and blink, like a curious little creature. Curious Gaze features a mechanism powered by servomotors and controlled by an Arduino board.

Once powered on, the eyes follow their automatic program: they observe a point, pause, and then move their gaze. The blinking and smooth movements give this animatronic creation character.

Autonomous and random animation

• Gaze movements to the left, right, up, and down.
• Random pauses of 0.4 to 1 second between gaze changes.
• Blinking every 0.6 to 2 seconds, sometimes with a quick double blink.
• Gaze generally close to the center, punctuated by wider movements.
• Both eyes aim at the same imaginary point, with a slight convergence to simulate close-up viewing.

The mechanism

Each eye uses three servomotors: one for horizontal movement, one for vertical movement, and one for the eyelids. The eyeball rests on a ball joint; steel wire linkages transmit the movements. The ServoEasing library smooths out the accelerations and decelerations.

No app or joystick

The original program runs automatically and randomly. It does not allow you to control the gaze in real time or replay a recorded movement without modifying the code. Manual control from a computer is used solely for calibrating the motors.