The following year, Chester left Koso and was, during the ensuing years, employed by several of Koso's competitors. The entirety of the project - from inception to termination - spanned less than two full months. However, the project was discontinued, the prototype was disassembled, and no further work was done.

Another Koso employee wrote code to control operation of the solenoids, and the team made a prototype. The solenoids could maintain a fixed position, e.g., opened or closed, with more efficiency than the actuator's hydraulic valve. The pre-specified design goals of the project were not met, but Chester and a colleague in the course of their work developed a different actuator in which the valve was supplemented with solenoids, which are electromagnetic devices in which a plunger is moved back and forth in response to electric current flowing through a surrounding coil. The goal of this project was to redesign one of the company's existing products to avoid paying royalties on a third-party patent under which the company was licensed. In 2002, engineer Mark Chester was tasked by his then-employer Koso America Inc.

Maintaining the actuator in a fixed position, e.g., holding the controlled valve open or closed, typically requires continuous operation of the hydraulic system to maintain the position of the actuator's internal valve. They are often operated hydraulically, which requires them to have their own valves. Actuators are remotely operated mechanized devices used in a variety of applications, such as opening and closing valves.

Normally closed electric solenoid valve