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8. Soft robotics

RESEARCH & IDEATION

SKUM PAVILION BY BIG

As an architect as soon as I heard inflatables it came to my mind the temporaly and inflatable architecture to my mind, one very famous project is this one by Bjarke Ingels Group, in which he shows that round shapes are better for inflatables as how the shape distributes the air evenly and also with how you can build whole structures with creative, a little bit of fabric and tons of air which doesn't occupy any space when moving the pavillion from place to place.

CREDITS

ARK NOVA BY ARATA ISOZAKI AND ANISH KAPOOR

Another very famous project is this one from the Japan architect Arata Isozaki and what really caught my attention about this project is the incredible size and the beautiful effect you get from the inside.

CREDITS

ANREALAGE BY KUNIHIKO MORINAGA

Now, stepping into fasion we have the work from these designers, they play with inflatables to get two fashion pieces into the same one and is very interesting how both fit very nice the body

CREDITS CREDITS

HARRI

CREDITS

REFERENCES & INSPIRATION

This was my inspiration from Fabricademy's projects as I didn't know what to do this week, so I started 'Brainstorming' and then the inspiration appeared, why not a brain! And even better, instead of just air, let's flow blood into it, so I looked through some of the past projects related to parts of the body and how they worked with liquids like these three ones:

ANNA CAIN

VIVIANE LABELLE

RILEY COX

Tools for design and documentation

Tools for circuit

  • Mosfet
  • Copper tape
  • Clamps
  • Power source
  • Engine
  • Breadboard
  • Resisto 100K Ohm
  • Diode
  • Arduino Flora

PROCESS

VINYL HEAT PRESS

* Heat press
  • Heat press vinyl
  • Baking paper
  • Scissors
  • Straws

Here you can see and hear the pump working so it inflates the vinyl brain

SILICONE

* Silicone
  • Mould
  • PLA or any 3d printing material
  • 3D Printer (in this case Bambu A1)
  • Straws

via GIPHY

Tools for liquid experiment

  • Syringe
  • Mica Powder bright red
  • Mica Powder Rubí
  • Water

CIRCUIT

We built a new circuit using a Mosfet thanks to Cit Hernandez' class, here you can see the first step which was to follow what was written on the paper which made it faster and easier for all of us to understand and make.

Here is all the connections in the cirucit to make the air pump work

CODE

int poten = 10;
int gate = 9;
int mapPot;
int valuePot;

void setup() {
  pinMode(poten, INPUT);
  pinMode(gate, OUTPUT);
  Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop() {
  valuePot= analogRead(poten);
  Serial.println(valuePot);
  mapPot=map(valuePot, 0, 1023, 0, 255);
  analogWrite(gate, mapPot);
}

2D & 3D MODELS

Here you can find the PDF for the vinyl model 1

Here you can also find the Rhino model for 3D printing the silicone mould 2

FROM 2D TO 3D

Here you can check the 3D printing settings I used on a Bambu A1 for the silicone mould

And you can see the step to step from 2D to 3D, I had to make some adjustments to the lines so the water could flow along the brain

RESULTS

First, the result of the mix for the ´blood´ which I really liked and was absically mica powder and water

Then, I got new shoes, don't worry, it washes away, and was very funny. Still I liked them that way so i wore them like that for a few weeks

And this is the blood and the brain...

Fabrication files

  1. File: PDF for Vinyl ↩

  2. File: Rhinoceros 3D for 3D Printing ↩