Loricatus Lumardeus is an electronic armadillo / caterpillar / sea creature hybrid that responds to light energy. Based on data from its onboard light sensor, it will adjust it’s speed and colour. The project was created to explore fabrication and prototyping techniques.
I contributed to the overall design and modelling of the creature. My main task was programming the onboard Arduino, sensor, lights and servo motors to make everything work.
Design + Fabrication
The problem space for our project was to design a kinetic sculpture, in the shape of life, as an energy use display. We considered dozens ideas during the exploration phase. Everything from beating hearts, to jellyfish and butterflies. In the end we chose to creature a lighted crawling creature. We built it using a variety of plastics and styrene, formed with a laser cutting machine, a 3D printer and variety of manual tools.
Programming + Electronics
Building the creatures was only half of the fun! We employed the open source Arduino rapid electronics prototyping platform to wire up and program the project. Using data from onboard light sensors we measured the ambient light, and used that data to control the pace of movement and the colour the creatures would glow. We discovered and overcame challenges of controlling and powering the servo motors, and how to create movement.