11. Soft robotics#
Research and References#
For This week I mainly focused on designing inflatables, engineering air channelsin order to achieve dramatic shapes/ curves of the overall material, at the same time recording its movements during the inflation process.
Source: http://erikdemaine.org/curved/history/
I read some research papers on the history of curvy origami designs, to get inspiration on imitating the supporting structures with either the material itself, or with air inflation.
Originally I was looking into Issey Miyaki’s Spiral origami dress and trying to find a way to learn from the methodologies and apply the minimal supporting structures onto my inflatables.
Source: https://wewanttolearn.wordpress.com/2015/12/01/the-helicoid/
Designing the inflation paths#
Laser Cut designs 1 with baking sheets/ paper
Laser Cut designs 2 with curves to generate flips/ twists on inflated material
Calligraphy elements#
As I was sketching the curvy air paths, the idea of calligraphy came to my mind as a styling element to be added in, in this way the air paths still work efficiently at the same time having a type of novelty as part of the visual characteristics.
Laser Cut designs 3 , taking inspirations from Chinese character calligraphy
Flapping Wings Paper Crane#
Studying the inner structure of a paper crane and its wings
Alongside my explorations on articulating the relationships between air pathways and the overall shape changes, I also started to consider the application of its mechanical effects onto a more complicated outer structre.
I brought in one of the design projects that I did before which is about paper cranes, trying to let inflation generates flapping movements of the crane wings.
The final design effect is that paper cranes fly themselves and their flying speed, direction and taking off could be controlled by air flow suppies.
I do realise it needs longer period of time to take things into consideration and realisation, so I did a little teaser video that shows very subtle flaps of the wings, while continue doing more experiments on basic air pathway developments, rather than continue engaging with the physics of crane wing structures, hopefully will continue in the near future.