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Tears of Ocean: A Mechatronic Art Installation

Tongmiao Xu and team

UC Berkeley · ME102B Mechatronics Design · December 2023

🏆 Second Prize, Mechatronics Design Social Impact
Video Poster Code

The idea

The installation shows an ocean changing from clean to polluted. A row of rotating plates stands for the ocean, moving from lively to lifeless. Sewage enters a water tank through a pipe, and a water-lifting mechanism moves it while the motor adjusts to the weight of the water. As the front tank fills, holes in the tanks open and let the water flow back to be reused. LEDs stay on while the ocean is clean and switch off at the end of the cycle, when it is polluted.

The project combines engineering with art: smooth, accurate control based on haptic feedback, in service of an interactive piece about environmental impact.

Annotated photo of the installation: water tank, pressure sensor, coupling, motor, shaft, wooden plates and housing
The finished installation: water tank, pressure sensor, motor and coupling, shaft, painted wooden plates and housing.

How it works

ControllerESP32 microcontroller
MotionPID-controlled shaft motor
SensingForce sensor reads water weight
FeedbackButton input · RGB LED states
CAD model of the installation
System model.
Circuit diagram
Circuit diagram.
State machine diagram
The state machine behind the clean-to-polluted cycle.