Last week we focused on the design for the venus fly trap actuator. We tried out a design with ridges running along the sides to allow for greater room for inflation and movement, hoping to achieve more bend with it. Our first cast failed during bonding ,leading to asymmetrical inflation. We then tried recasting another version with some acetate bonded to one side, which suffered from the same issue. We then did a third casting which was able to bend symmetrically. Adding the ridges did allow for more inflation room, but also allowed for some in-plane movement which is un-ideal.
Moving forward, we are going to stick to the original actuator and attach leaves to it to test out our electronics. We will also try our another bending design for the fly trap this week with leaves attached to the actuator.
