Design Progress:
Unfortunately, my timeline and design process have been pushed back because of work for my other classes, but I am sure that I will be able to speed up my process along a new timeline to hopefully catch up. I have researched different L-systems that I can use for my butterfly wings and made significant progress in the code portion of my project. I have written Python code to interpret different L-system axioms, rules and angles so I have more flexibility down the road to change designs if I need to. I was able to program the extruder turtle to draw different biological designs using some axioms and rules I have found.
One of the more important parts of the project was fitting these designs within the outer ring of the butterfly’s wings. I was able to fit my shape to a simple cosine wave and I believe it should be fairly simple to plug in the equation for the ellipses I used to fill the wing with these L-system designs.
Progress Documentation:
These models show some potential designs I may use for the inside of the butterfly’s wings. The leaf venation design is one of my favorites and I have included a picture of it fitted to a cosine curve. I did draw the cosine curve as a reference but you can see that parts of the leaf were not drawn as to not go outside of the wave. I plan to include some more specific algebra to make it perfectly fit the wave instead of just coming close.
Physical Object Prototype:
Unfortunately, I am once again having the same issue with my 3D printer that I was having the last time I printed the butterfly. I am not sure what is causing this issue but I was not able to print any objects before this deadline and I will make an effort to post another update when I am able to get my printer to work properly again. I am not too worried about how the designs will print in the wing since they are not too complex but this is a pretty big setback. Nonetheless, I believe I can stick to this new timeline given my printer decides to start functioning properly.
Deliverables:
For my deliverables I believe that I could print more than one butterfly with varying wing designs. It would not be too farfetched to print more than one of these butterflies with different wing designs since I made the code flexible I can just change the axiom and rules to get a completely different pattern. I am hoping to have 2-3 butterflies for my final submission.
Timeline:
Nov 28: Printed prototypes of a simple L-System design to see how well the printer can print it midair and if any adjustments need to be made.
Dec 1: Code the full butterfly with the L-system designs fitted to all 4 wings and print prototypes to find any last minute adjusments.
Dec 7: Final prints of 2-3 butterflies with different wing patterns.