The Animatronic Visage of the Terrifying Future That Awaits Us all

By now, most of us know that a Skynet-style robot apocalypse is a silly concept and the actual dangers presented by AI are much more nuanced. But as humans, we have an innate fear of the “other.” There are a handful of compelling hypotheses for the uncanny valley phenomenon, but its existence is undeniable. There is, after all, a reason that the actual consumer robots on the market don’t look like people. Will Cogley got that memo, but then threw it in the trash when he made this animatronic head with a face that perfectly encapsulates the uncanny valley.

One of the most convincing arguments explaining the uncanny valley is that entities exhibiting almost human features subconsciously remind us of dead bodies, which we would have evolved reasons to avoid. That would certainly make sense here, because Cogley’s animatronic head has dull, gray, zombie-like artificial flesh made of flexible molded silicone. That stretches and contorts as it makes facial expressions. It is very realistic, but also just a little wrong — that’s why it is so creepy.

In Cogley’s defense, the animatronic head is an engineering marvel and the craftsmanship is genuinely impressive. Cogley also said that he attempted to avoid the uncanny valley effect by exaggerating the proportions and expressions a bit, with the goal of a more cartoonish presentation. We think he could have gone further with that, because it still looks very human to our eyes.

Creepiness aside, this is an incredible project full of great ideas and really skillful design. For example, the skin (which Cogley molded himself in silicone) mounts to the underlying structure using little clamp pieces with embedded magnets. They hold the skin in place at key points, while letting it flex and contract elsewhere. You may not realize it, but your own human flesh does something similar and that is part of the reason why the animatronic head is so convincing. The detailed eyeballs are also part of that equation.

Of course, none of that would matter without movement and Cogley didn’t neglect that. Under the skin is a framework of 3D-printed parts actuated by a whole bunch of servo motors. Just fitting all of those into a space the size and shape of a human skull was quite the undertaking, but Cogley pulled it off and managed to give all of the joints the appropriate movement. An Arduino Mega board controls those servos through a custom shield that Cogley had made by JLCPCB.

This is still a work in progress and Cogley has plans for improvement, including a new molding process he wants to try for the silicone skin. Be sure to subscribe to his channel so you can see future updates if you’d like to experience some interesting new nightmares.