Sander Hofstee

During the internship I worked on a retractable wing system. I designed a telescopic arm system which can extend and retract using air pressure. These arms form the skeleton of the wings. The wings drive a crankshaft to pressurize the air which is stored in waterbottles. The Strandbeest can walk, turn around and perform various other tasks using this pressurized air. When there is a storm it is better to have the wings down to avoid damage, with the last bit of power the Strandbeest can hammer itself into the ground when the storm comes.Over the course of 6 months 3 large strandbeest creatures were produced at a small laboratory near the Hague. Mainly constructed from PVC tubes and tie-wraps, these creatures, called strandbeest (Beach Animal), evolve with every new generation towards the ultimate goal; total independece. The way they are programmed to move is basically like a very simple analog computer, running on compressed air.

Design of the telescopic wing system.

These make up the brain of a strandbeest.

Pressurized air storage: water bottles

Production of telescopic wing system

Production of plugs.

"Mass" production of plugs

Detail of a wing featuring the telescopic system

Strandbeest on location in London.

Wing, made out of tape and string

View of the wings moving the crankshaft.