Shake Mechanism Project: Integrate into MoVI Controller

I am an intern working for a small film company in Boston, Massachusetts. My term goal is to create a simple mechanism that adds artificially generated shake to a camera frame. An example application of the mechanism could be that an operator wants shake in the camera when they are shooting a fast car chase scene over bumpy terrain. The Vibra Box by Filmotechic is an example of a quintessential mechanism used in the professional industry.


The project centers around the MōVI Pro. With Freefly’s release of their API, the MōVI Pro’s mechanics became accessible.


I have an Arduino Esplora microcontroller feeding commands to the MoVI Pro GCU. I have pan and tilt set in RATE. From there, I exploit a sinusoidal function to incrementally add and subtract value to and from the pan and tilt rates. With each loop of the Arduino code, the sin function output changes, thus pan and tilt adjust. Because the speed of the Arduino loop can be dictated by the Arduino delay function, I have the capability to control how fast pan and tilt change values. Furthermore, the period and amplitude of the sin function can be changed to add more or less joggle to the frame.


For randomness, I have a variable that controls the amplitude of the sin function. This variable is set at the beginning of every Arduino loop to a random integer value between 1 and 5. This creates spontaneous surges in camera movement. The issue is that these “surges” are truly random, and the position of the lens will veer off center sometimes. Without random amplitude, the camera joggles, but remains centered.


I am reaching out for general comments and suggestions on this project. One major problem is the cheap-ness of Arduino. If there was a way to integrate this code into the Playstation controller that Freefly supports, that would be perfect, as the PS controller is more durable. If that is not an option, is there another way to integrate this project into a Freefly controller?