The Solar Sunflower Project - Electric Sky Edition
The Solar Sunflower we built for Electric Sky is a 500 watt solar generator. It stands 6.5" tall with five flower petals on top. Each petal is 5'2" long, 3' wide and weighs 48 pounds. The petals are hinged to circular head piece 3' in diameter.
The petals open and close. Each petal has a linear force actuator that can move it up and down and is independently controlled by a microprocessor. The linear actuator moves the petals at a constant one inch per second velocity and has a 30 second end to end travel time.
In the morning the petals open and position themselves towards the sun. During the day the petals independently track the sun and charge a large battery. At night, energy from the battery is used to animate the flower with movement and light provided by 250 individually addressable pixel LEDs.
More picture and Sketch Up Make files available on [github](https://github.com/littlebee/solar-sunflower)
