Introduction: FLWR - the Blooming Field. a Futuristic Flower Installation.

By
About: KTH student

For DH2400 course at KTH, The Royal Institution of Technology we

decided to make a controllable flower using an Arduino as the operating system.

Step 1: Materials

Wire dome

  • 200 meters of brass wire, thickness 0.5mm
  • 2 meters of copper wire, thickness 1.0mm
  • Patience

Flowers

  • Silk fabric
  • Patience

Wooden base and a motor

Electronics

  • Arduino + USB cable
  • Arduino cables
  • 1 servomotor
  • Photoresistor 5 - 10k
  • Potentiometer
  • LED stripe
  • Resistor 6,8kΩ

Useful tools

  • Tape
  • Pliers
  • Nippers
  • Glue gun
  • Clamps
  • Lasercutter
  • Sandpaper
  • Knife/scissor
  • Drilling machine + appropriate drills( ~1,5mm)

Step 2: Cutting Up Ply Wood Parts for the Motor

Cut all the Up-Down + Rack and Pinion parts from the plywood with a laser cutter (preferably birch wood). The parts can be modified according to your own design/size.

Laser cut also:

  • One circle with ⌀ 25cm
  • One circle with ⌀ 25cm and ⌀ 10 cm hole in the middle, and
  • One circle ⌀ 8 cm
  • 79 cm x 7 cm outer circle with a flexible print. Different alternatives for a good print you can find here. Or use the one we had!

Step 3: Assemble the Motor

Assemble the plywood parts according to the model below. For a longer version please check out the original model. Attach the machinery to the ⌀ 26cm plywood circle with a corner bracket.

Step 4: Flower Stick Board

Attach 6mm floral sticks to the ⌀ 8cm plywood circle with some hot glue. Our floral sticks ended up being a little different length due to the different placements of the flowers so make sure to measure the appropriate length for your design first! Make sure to drill small holes in the middle since the flowers will be attached there later on with glue and copper wire.

Step 5: Copper Dome

Use the 1mm copper wire for the frame of the dome. Make sure that the dome is properly supported.

Step 6: Brass Cones

Use 0,5mm wire for small brass cones for supporting the flowers while they move up-and-down direction. Roll copper wire around them until you get a supportive results. For this project, 6 cones were formed. Good tools and patience are recommended!

Step 7: Attaching Cones to the Copper Frame

Attach the cones to the copper frame accordingly

Step 8: Finish Up Your Dome!

Cover the dome with 200m of 0.5 mm copper wire. The more wire, the prettier the dome will be. If you leave 2cm space underneath it will help you to attach the dome to the wooden base later on.

Step 9: Silk Flowers

Craft the silk flowers. Tape can come in hand if the leaves of the flower are loose as well as for the attachment of the flower to the floral stick. We attached some copper tape on the back side of the leaves to make them heavier and open up better in the movement but this optional!

Step 10: Assemble the Base

Glue the pieces together! We printed more 2cm x 8cm of wooden pieces in order to support the upper level better.

Step 11: Attach LED Stripe

Attach the LED stripe to the sides. We added some folio paper to reflect the light better! We also crafted a "door" on the side in order to help us to change the battery from time to time.

Solder also the light sensors to the Arduino cables!

Step 12: Attach the Dome to the Upper Circle

Attach the dome to the upper circle with some copper wire. We drilled small holes around the wooden circle and attached pieces of copper wires to it which made sure that the dome stays in place.

We also attached some copper wire to the flowers and made sure that they are in the place and height that we want them to be. The V shape of the copper wire helps us to make sure that the flower pounces out of its hole nicely!

Now glue the dome and the upper circle to the outer circle and glue flowers to the floral sticks!

Step 13: Arduino Set-up

1. Connect the 5V output and the ground pins to the D and E

rows respectively on the breadboard.

2. Connect power to 3 light sensors, remember to also ground them, don't forget the resistors (6,8Kohm). The light sensor will have their signal sent to pins A0, A1 and A2. These will be used to measure the user's interaction.

3. The servo will be connected to pin 9.

4. Last but not least, we connect the LED strip to pin nr 5.

The code for the Arduino you'll find here!