This section presents two tests: an inflation test and a hybrid test. The inflation test shows a simulated actuator being inflated with the pressure being measured. The hybrid test shows the simulated actuator being used in conjunction with traditional rigid LEGO Mindstorms robots.
These tests used simulated actuator consisting of a water balloon sealed onto a LEGO pneumatic tube using hot glue. The team was unable to fabricate an PneuNet (curing process not forgiving to uneven temperatures of kitchen oven and PLA mold). Their intentions were to show it with a PneuNet, but fabrication was a bit tricky without the proper equipment (hole-creating bubbles, melted PLA molds), so they didn't have any usable actuators. The simulated actuator was used for both tests.
Together these tests show that the LEGO version of a pneumatic control board is a working solution to allow kids to use pneumatic actuators in their own hybrid robot creations.
Inflation Test
The video below shows a version of our prototype pumping up a simulated actuator while measuring the pressure. The pneumatic controller only has a single pump, whereas the designs included on the wiki call for two pumps. The test accurately show the pressure of the balloon while it is inflating.
Hybrid Test
This test was to demonstrate that the pneumatic mechanism can be combined with traditional EV3 sensors to create hybrid soft and rigid robots using rigid LEGO Mindstorms parts and soft pneumatic actuators.