Off the Grid
Kinetic sculpture with 64 stepper motor-actuated balls that create wavelike motion and interactive patterns, built for the College of Computing at Georgia Tech.
A kinetic sculpture involving 64 sensor-actuator pairs that raise and lower end effectors (wooden balls) to create wavelike motion and other interesting patterns. The gallery shows the progression from an early 9-motor prototype through to the full-scale final product. Installed at the College of Computing at Georgia Tech.
Each node consists of a hobby stepper motor driven by a Pololu A4988 driver, with a limit switch for homing. An Mbed MCU coordinates all 64 axes through a chain of MCP23S17 16-bit SPI I/O expanders, keeping the bus complexity manageable and allowing near-simultaneous updates across the full array.
The structural frame was cut on a CNC router and band saw. Motor mounts and ball guides were 3D-printed on a Prusa. The custom PCB was milled on a LPKF PCB mill and designed in KiCad, though I eventually opted to get the boards made by a PCB manufacturer.
Hardware: Hobby Stepper Motors, Pololu A4988 Drivers, Limit Switches, Mbed MCU, MCP23S17 SPI I/O Expanders, LPKF PCB Mill, Prusa 3D Printer, CNC Router
Software: C++, Mbed Online IDE, SolidWorks, KiCad, Inkscape
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