Evolution of Flight: Slots and Planes
Before developing an algorithm that allows me to evolve planes, I needed to define a a standard way to connect the wings to the fuselage. I experimented with different types of slots that allows the wing to slide into the fuselage. These slots are shown below
Option A is a straight groove that fits into a complimentary slot in the wing
I lasercut and tested the four ideas. I found that Options A and B worked the best. Option C was difficult to fit into the slot and the wings on Option D were too fragile. In the end, I decided to use Option A since it struck the best balance between ease of assembly and implementation in code.
Option A fully assembled
After determining the shape of the slot, I created an algorithm in Rhino.Python that would generate the airplanes. Each airplane had fourteen genes, shown in the table below, that determine its form.
These fourteen genes allow me to generate a wide variety of shapes and sizes. The forms that they generate will provide a good starting point when I begin evolving the airplanes.
My next step is to write the code that will be responsible for generating new planes based on the results of the first generation of tests. Once that’s done, we can begin evolving some flying machines. Stay tuned.
As always, if you have any thoughts or ideas, please feel free to comment below.
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