Moving Snake
by Fawn
Many movement in nature, whether in animal or plants are caused by contraction and expansion. Similarly, flexinol also contracts and expands. Could flexinol be used to replicate nature’s movement?
A string of round wooden chips could represent the body of the snake
Ideally when strung together, contraction of flexinol will make the snake “move”
However, in the real scenario the snake did not move as well. Observe the real movement in the video.
As you can see, only the tail moved slightly, The rest of the body seems to be stuck. In this scenario, the snake could move in all directions as the snake was only strung in the center.
Another try
This time there are two modifications made:
1. The snake body is made out of cardboard
2. The snake’s movement is more restricted, it can only move side by side, as you can see from the pictures, beads are used to secure the snake’s movement
Surprisingly, this snake moved even less than the wooden snake.
The major takeaway is perhaps to experiment more with how flexinol behave through trial and error. The next experiment should be based on how tight the body components are attached and how that will affect the movement of the snake.
A side project
While waiting for the lasercutter to cut the snake body, I mixed some SkinRite mixture with thermochromatic powder, another actuator.
Here are the results
This material is very responsive to heat, it can change color even by putting it on a warm area on your body. There could be many potential application of it such as a food temperature tester for infants or a coffee coaster with hidden patterns.
Demo