Midterm Free Writing

The most surprising thing about this ladybug was getting the Theo Jansen Mechanism to work. However I discovered a lot of technical things along the way. The first was working with paper materials. This first prototype I couldn’t get it laser cut, so I had to choose a material thick enough to work as a structure but also manageable enough to cut with an exacto knife and scissors. I chose butter board which turned out to work very well except for the small size I was working with, so when I got the axis in place and started testing, some of the pieces started to break and I had to reinforce them. Another problem that I found with the material was that I needed to enclose the components inside it, so that added weight that I didn’t really considered before. I had to reinforce a lot of parts.

 
What I really like about it is what you can’t see, the insides! Which for the next iteration I plan to expose, cause it is the core of the movement. I have to figure out a way of enclosing the servo and make it work with the overall design.
 
What I feel is unique about this project is the capability of movement from one point to another. And more importantly the fact that interacts with its surrounding. I have yet to test this. But I’m excited about the project!