We first looked at whether our patterned designs work! Below is the more rigid design that we created. The reservoir was too small so it did not fill all the way, but with some force you can see the pattern. There are also bubbles with the liquid which we were able to figure out a mechanism to get rid of them.

For this design, we did the math wrong so the layers were extremely thick and didn’t show both of the designs together as much as we had hoped. So for our next 3d prints we fixed that. It was interesting to see the faint blue pattern though which gave our team much hope for this concept.

As we continued to test, we realized that we need to tap and take out all of the air so that there wouldn’t be any bubble in our reservoir.

After testing our smaller tests, we realized that it would be better to change the design slightly to better fit. Below is our final concept/design.

Alternatively, our team was trying out several experiments that involved both liquid repositories in the same plane, where liquid would travel through a channel from one repository, and enter a channel in another layer, so we could have “overlapping channels” with very little obscured because the layers between channels are thinner. However, we discovered this is extremely hard to bond, likely because the second layer was too thin (silicone kept moving into the .25mm channel). It’s going to be simpler to just layer channels on top of each other, and the color can still be seen pretty well.

For the second model, the mold was warped so that the silicone kept ripping. Talked to Cody and he said it was the printers problem.

In the third model, we tested a bigger version that had more liquid and had color!

From this experiment, we learned that it is possible to have a self-contained shape changing simply by pumping a lot of liquid and air. We also learned it is best to inject from the top of a repository, and it is best to pump darker color liquid into a syringe, since it will get much lighter in small quantities

Our current Idea

We are going to be creating a 2-piece sports wearable that signals to the audience and the wearer when a potential injury has occurred. One piece will be a head gear and one piece will be a knee gear. There will be a performance element in that the ‘players’ will be demonstrating the changes in the wearable (i.e. color, direction of liquid flow, and shape change) through normal sports interactions, and then demonstrate the ‘injury’ through pantomiming (i.e. landing lighter on the knee but still full impact). Affected areas will be shown with reversible color and shape change, and a locking mechanism will be implemented to keep the liquid in certain areas until it is manually reset.

Feedback from Garth on 03/16

• How is the audience interacting w it? Is the transformation something that just the audience observes, or does the wearer observe
• Which body part are we concentrating on
• Theme? Contact sport, Domestic Violence, is the audience doing the pressing of the “pulser” or is the user?
• Are we sticking to just microfluidics for both shape and color transformation? If so, we need to plan to pump water into the shape molds for the experiments

Potential Ideas

• Knee Injury + Head injury
• Performance where 2 players are practicing a sport (i.e. soccer) and one person feigns an injury (i.e. landing slowly on their knee so as to not hurt themselves, but to imitate the level of impact)
• Locking mechanism to keep liquid in certain areas, so when the injury is ‘revealed’ (i.e. knee comes up after being slammed down, the liquid is in a different location), the audience can see what happened
• Reversible color change (i.e. overlapping of colors that can be undone)
• Need to map out an idea for the channel design of each of these wearables (Jina does head, Sunjana does knee)
• Experiment with shape change of existing silicone molds/amount of liquid going in
• Experiment with color change
• Need to choreograph the performance

Schedule

03/14: Molds are printed

03/18: Make molds and test

End of the week 03/20: Make weekly post and one more iterations

• Sunjana will test patterns for the liquid color
• Jina will start to think about the design and test the shape changing
• Both will test layering that will combine shape and liquid injection

03/21: Design new molds + Brainstorm the range of movements/effects for each movement

• Jina focuses on using the amount of liquid to make shape change
• Sunjana focuses on enabling a reversible color change that is more apparent (i.e. you can see the different colors as well as how they briefly overlap into one), and will also figure out how to best inject the liquid such that it doesn’t leak out of the holes

03/25: Make Molds and test:

End of the week 03/27: Make weekly post and more iterations

03/28: Final mold test

04/01: Make molds and test

End of the week 04/03: Make weekly posts and start to make the final design

After getting help and multiple reviews from Garth (Thank you!!) I was able to properly make my mold and understand the structure to why it is important to make assemblies and cavities. This time I was able to get half of the mold printed and have been waiting for the bottom piece. Sunjana was able to get it started in the printer on Wednesday so we are hoping on Friday I am able to get it.

Things to due after break:

• Iterate on the design now that we have tested that the liquid version works during class on Wednesday
• Keep trying to get my prints made – working with Cody and Sunaja (hopefully they can get all printed so I can mold during the break!)

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1OcNvWW4Zeu_ShMLsVo1av5yV_rrkmrR4

For Mold B, I was looking at more complex parts. I hope to use the thicker material when molding because I just want to see if the shapes and patterns will be properly seen. I am worried that the tube size is not correct. Moving forward, I want to make sure to make these models into a cavity to ensure that the inside is shorter than the outer walls.

I want to take these 3 sections and divide them into thirds to attach on top of each other when made into the silicone. Talking with Sunjana, we wanted to create a wearable that will help athletes and those who go through injuries.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1GpWz9UtfSFnM4SLPxMg2e4QPDh1kmbCU?usp=sharing

For this iteration, I have been focused on revising my previous prototype. Previously, I had the mold switched which caused a lot of confusion when I was creating it. I started to also think about the contextualization of our wearable. The part that was cast using Mold A is testing the shape inflating aspect. I infer that the inflating will be simple but useable, but will need to make sure that the bonding is secure so there aren’t any air leakages.

• High Contact Athletes can wear this to understand where there is an injury or an upcoming bruise –> use color to indicate the extremeness and the shape to show where it is.
  • Football Players: Have a side head piece that can detect when there is high contact on the head to help with identifying concussions
  • Snowboarders: Have a wrist wearable to know if there are any accidental fractures/sprains when landing on their hand

Things to Due before Break:

• Finalize the practice molds (get it to work)
• Iterate on the actual design

Changes planned for the next mold version:

• Follow the correct procedure when working with cavities.
• Slightly increase the thickness of the bottom and side wall parts
• Attempt to understand if shape changing and color liquid injection can be done together for our project

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1OcNvWW4Zeu_ShMLsVo1av5yV_rrkmrR4?usp=sharing

Based on the sketches I had last class, for the first mold, I wanted to do something more simple to ensure that this bubble like actuation will occur which is the first sketch with circles. Afterwards, I want to test more complex molds that will allow more organic texture which feels/looks like a brain. I realized that my previous iterations to these were incorrect because I inverted the mold.

Aposema is a personally customized wearable prosthetic mask that responds to the wearer’s expressions, in order to speculate on a near future where we rely on technology to replace our, once natural, instincts. I will need to finalize the user flow –> test various methods of actuation –> design in CAD –> 3d print mold –> fabricate the robot –> assemble –> program –> user test.

• What are all the components of the overall system? E.g. this may include elements of structure, actuation, power, sensing, computation, algorithm.
  • Air/liquid channel
  • inflation pocket
  • pulse sensor
• Are there rigid or mechanical parts in addition to soft materials?
  • There may need to be a rigid part when supporting the head.
• Which specific components will be hardest to fabricate? What specific techniques might be included?
  • The patterns on the silicone as I will need to be various tests to see what works the best.

https://www.instructables.com/APOSEMA/

https://awrd.com/en/creatives/detail/1077966

https://www.colorado.edu/today/2021/07/20/origami-comes-life-new-shape-changing-materials

https://news.mit.edu/2015/can-led-robot-garden-make-coding-more-accessible-0218

J. Yi et al., “Customizable Three-Dimensional-Printed Origami Soft Robotic Joint With Effective Behavior Shaping for Safe Interactions,” in IEEE Transactions on Robotics, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 114-123, Feb. 2019, doi: 10.1109/TRO.2018.2871440.

S. Liu et al., “Otariidae-Inspired Soft-Robotic Supernumerary Flippers by Fabric Kirigami and Origami,” in IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, vol. 26, no. 5, pp. 2747-2757, Oct. 2021, doi: 10.1109/TMECH.2020.3045476.

Influenced by soft-robotic principles, they used flexible materials that will be able to change to outdoor weather conditions. This co-working pod is meant to link indoor and outdoor working for all year round in any locations. The pod is made of modular steel structure which is covered by soft-robotic skin made out of 8 polyurethane pneumatic actuators. The frames are made of two internal air chambers to make it look like a petal, reflecting nature and biology. The “petals” curl up or down when the chambers are pressurized as it is activated based on weather sensors, valves, and airpumps. The pod is also equipped with a compact HVAC system for heating, cooling, WiFi, charing spots and a PV solar panel.

The Milan-based studios intends to create a more sustainable collaborative environment by adapting to its environments just like organisms. This architectural mix with design and soft robotics already uses soft materials in the overall design. Right now, only the roof of the design uses this soft robotics, so allowing the table to also be in the same material and actuate could allow this pod to be more easily moveable.

For this week, I looked into the elastomeric origami which focuses on developing a programmable paper-elastomer composites as pneumatic actuators. The soft pneumatic actuators we made of elastomers. They are inexpensive, simple to fabricate, light in weight, and easy to actuate. These soft actuators can manipulate objects like they can lift loads up to 120 times their weight. They can also be combined with other components, for example, electrical components, to increase their functionality.

Martinez, R.V., C.R. Fish, X. Chen, and G.M. Whitesides, Elastomeric Origami: Programmable Paper-Elastomer Composites as Pneumatic Actuators. Advanced Functional Materials, 2012. 22(7): p. 1376-1384.

Daniel Rozin

This interaction designer plays with reflections and mirroring and one project that stood out to me is the giant 500 penguin stuffed animals that copy your movement. I am curious to see how this type of interaction can be used in the context of soft robotics. Would it be possible to create a bunch of soft robotic mouths and the more noise there is in the room than the more mouths that are open and moving. Another memorable piece from Rozin is the PomPom Mirror. There are 928 bundles of faux fur while the camera tracks you to push and pull the pompoms.

Alain Haerri

Haerri is able to use flatten aluminum cans to actuate into various waves. This installation redirects light from 576 square panels. This uses arduinos and mini maestros to get each of the movements through servos. Though this iis not in the context of soft robots, I can envision this type of wave affect in a soft robot.

Towards developing product applications of thick origami using the offset panel technique

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/297653122_Towards_developing_product_applications_of_thick_origami_using_the_offset_panel_technique