Anyone who associates LEGO® Mindstorms® with only robots is wrong.
Andreas Baumgart proves this with his project „Billund Table“. Billund Table is a design based on LEGO Mindstorms where a magnet moves under a glass plate using rotary and linear motion.
On top of the glass plate is a steel ball and fine sand. The magnet moves the steel ball over the plate through the sand creating beautiful harmonious movement and impressive patterns. In order to ensure the ball’s smooth movement over the table, the construction, the magnetic forces and the resistance of the sand had to be harmonized.
The goal was to keep the design as simple as possible, directing the viewer’s attention instead to the events on the table. That’s really something to be proud of. Special coding makes the ball draw continuous patterns into the sand. The speed was set so that the ball makes its tracks almost silently and is thus calming, almost meditative, to the viewer.
Andreas Baumgart was inspired by Bruce Shapiro’s „Sisyphus Table“ in November 2016.
Credits to Fabrice Weinberg.
Andreas Baumgart 