Firefly Intro plus Flex (Bend) Sensors Laminated into Composite Panel

In this Intro to Firefly video, there are several examples including one featuring 4 flex (bend) sensors embedded into a laminated composite panel.  Each of these sensor values can be read into Grasshopper (in real-time) and can be used to control a virtual simulation of the same bending stresses.

Comments

[Charles]

Hi Andy,

Is it possible to share the files for the bend sensor experiment?

Trying some interesting things with building skins and I think it could help a great deal.

Thank you

[Editor]

Hi Charles,
That experiment was done by Jason, so unfortunately I don't have that one on hand. But the example would be fairly easy to setup. Essentially there are four bend sensors laminated into a composite material. Each of these sensors are connected to one of the Analog In Pins (0-3) and will return a value somewhere between 0-1023. Once the Firefly Firmata has been uploaded to your board, you can use the Duemilanove Read component to read those four sensor values into Grasshopper. Then all you have to do is figure out how to convert that 0-1023 value into a bend value for a curve (I typically use an Arc 3pt. where the first point is fixed, the mid point is rotated half of the full sensor value, and the last point is rotated the full sensor value). Once you've used each sensor to create a rail curve (4 total) then you simply loft them all together. Of course, this could be expanded in a number of different ways, but that's essentially what's happening in this video. Does this help you?
-Andy