The Toroflux is a cool flow toy. The Fabulous Danny and I created this motorised version, with a loop of string and a motor to pull the string up as the Toroflux rolls down.

In April, this video went viral on Instagram with 250,000 views.

Danny developed all the electronics and control, with the time-of-flight sensor to detect the position of the Torofluxus, PID control on an ESP32, the motor driver and power circuits. I drove the design of the concept, the mechanical design. We both worked on the integration together.

Danny also created a Hoverflux, a simulator for Roboflux to test the PID auto-tuning. Click “Enable-control” and then “Enable autotune” to watch it stabilise.

I thought it would be easy to automate a toroflux, Hah! It’s already taken 6 versions over 10 years to get to a reliable working proof of concept.

This project is still ongoing. The next stage is to work on the aesthetics and form to elevate it from a test rig to a kinetic sculpture.