12. Soft robotics¶
Inspiration & Research¶
We have had another exciting week. The field of soft robotics. It is always fascinating to me to learn about inflation and the concept of movement and transformation. This is something I would like to learn so that I can apply it to my final project.
My inspiration this week comes from the natural elements and origami techniques shown in the below reference images. Additionally, I have attached gifs from the known artist John Edmark and the fashion designer Jack Irving as inspiration.
Design by Dinesh kumar
Inflate Process¶
Below is a visual depiction of the lab's inflation process.
Material Possibilities¶
Here are some examples of materials that can be used to develop soft robotics. In terms of materials, I would most likely use vinyl, paper, and fabric, but I may explore other options depending on my schedule.
Design- 1¶
Exploration - 1 Spiral Outer¶
I have used John Edmark design to try with the inflatabels, you can find the files in the below link.
Process¶
Step-1 : Laser curring the design.
Laser cutting setings
Step-2 : Cover he butter paper with Vinyl on both the side. Make sure the size toeards towards paper are correct before proceeding for sealing.
Step-3 : Seal the vinyl using Heat setting Meachine / Iron.
Heat Setting Meaching Setting
- Temperature - 135
- Time - 20sec
Note- Always keep butter paper on both the sides of the sample to avoid menting on the machine.
Some how the maching didnt heat properly so, I have pressed with Iron to make sure it sealed completly.
Step-4 : Peel the lamination from the vinyl and cut the excess vinyl to the design shape.
Final Result
Design by Dinesh kumar
Design Exploration - 2 Spiral Inner¶
In the second exploration, I have tried the inner space to inflate and see the difference. It worked pretty well and next step would be trying to attach both and see the difference.
Design
Process
Inflation Video
Design by Dinesh kumar
The Inflation worked better than the previous one , My next experiment will be attacehd the to spiran and see teh difference.
Design Exploration - 2 Spiral Inner 2 Pieces attached¶
Design Proces
Inflation Video
Design by Dinesh kumar
The 2 separate spiral piece I have jont are worked pretty well but I would like to experiment by combaining both togeather.
Design Exploration -2 Spiral Inner 2 Pieces attached-2¶
Design
Process
Inflation Video
Design by Dinesh kumar
Design Exploration - Diamond Spiral¶
In the previous exploration the designs are square shaped and I will be trying to change the shape to diamnd and see the difference as the ait pressure in diamond shape will give the better lift to teh shape when Its inflated.
Design
Process*
Inflation Video
Design by Dinesh kumar
The above are all the explorations I have done with the Spiral shapes I have created.It worked pretty well than the square spiral shaped.
Comments from the review:
- To get a better lift, make the shape flat rather than spiral. Hopefully I will be able to try the same in the future and will post it here to compare.
Design-2¶
The second design was inspired by Origami which I had worked on in previous projects. Here is a link to my earlier Origami Works in detail.
To see how inflation works, I tried a basic shape.
Design and Process
Exploration-1
In exploration 1 I used the paper and tried to attach the vinyl using a heat sealing machine with 60 settings.
It didnt work well as the paper is very light and when I tried to deflate It becomes flat and didnt hold its shape properly
Exploration-2
In exploration 2, I tried to use a plastic sheet with basic valley and mountain foldings.
When I tried to deflate it worked well and hold the speed as expected.
Design by Dinesh kumar
In the future, I would like to explore a bit more complicated shapes to study the movement.
Thank you