Caterpillar

by Yoav

For the shape changing textile assignment I wanted to make a walking caterpillar. I used 4 Flexinol wires and made 4 flexible arcs. The idea is to mimic the caterpillar walk by shrinking each arc at a time.

I designed the shape in Solidworks in sheetmatal format so I will be able to flatten in and cut it on the late cutter:
the design in CAD

caterpillar design

Here is the drawing of the flat caterpillar to be cut in the laser cutter
flat caterpillar

Laser cutting
laser cutting

I cut the traces of the vinyl cutter

Then I attached the traces on the cuter cardboard
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I used water vapors to bend the cardboard and maintain it’s flexibility

This is images of the final piece