Project Brief

Make an interactive project incorporating an Arduino microcontroller and at least one sensors.

Design Process

For this project, I wanted to create something interactive with immediate but fleeting joy. The project displayed the difference between natural and object interactions.
I chose to create a 'Touch me not' plant because it is something enticing that you want to touch, even though you probably should not. It emphasises how we can reach out to someone/thing, against their wishes, just because it elicits a response.

I spent most of my time figuring out the mechanism and circuitry for the project. Initially, I was planning to use nitinol wires but, the electric energy through the circuit was not high enough to heat it. I ended up using 5 servo motors (converting the rotatory to linear motion) that pulled on the wires, making them retreat into the ground. To do so successfully, I had to experiment with the speed of rotation, leaf material and wire thickness.

The final result is in an enclosed box containing my Arduino, the motors, a distance sensor and a LOT of wires. When the user extends their hand to touch the leaves protruding out of the box, the sensor gets triggered and pushes the servo motors to rotate. This makes the leaves shrink away from the hand. If there is no more movement for some time, they slowly unravel again.

Reflection

The completion of this project was a bittersweet one. I was proud of the final product despite its difference from the original plan. It taught me to pivot when some mechanism wasn't working and look at it from another perspective. Half-way through the project, I realised I needed to reduce scope when I couldn't get the nitinol wires to work. If I were to re-attempt this project, I would enhance the leaf movement by introducing a touch sensor, so only those leaves that were touched would move. I would also try to solder my own LEDs, to give me more control over their movement and intensity.

Reference