Author: Maddie

This week we were able to 3D print, cast, and bond 6 miniature test pieces that we had been working on as a means of improving our current finger mold. We created 6 new cavity designs and were able to print molds for them in one go in order to maximize time; we plan on
Continue reading Week 5 Update: Maddie & Xiaofan

Last Monday (3/27) we received the 3D printed parts of our updated mold as well as the hard ABS hinge. The print quality and precision was worse than we were hoping, but in light of Skylab being offline, we’ll take what we can get! Casting the ABS hinge in silicone was a success; both parts
Continue reading Week 3 Update: Maddie & Xiaofan

Our proof of concept part will be a thin, narrow, rectangular silicone part with two wires trained to different positions. During testing, we will alternate which wire is being heated to actuate the test part. A successful test will demonstrate that:

Project Summary Our project is an actuating silicone hand. Each finger’s large movements will be powered via pneumatic pumps, and current-driven nitinol wire will fine-tune these movements. The finger will be cast in two parts out of silicone and fused together; afterwards, trained nitinol will be strategically guided into the cured silicone, with wire leads
Continue reading Project Overview — Maddie and Xiaofan

Xiaofan and I designed a mold for an inflation-actuated silicone finger. The part is able to bend at two joints, and is made by combining two silicone parts which each have a mold set. Here are some graphics of the silicone part we designed: Here is the link to a Google Drive folder containing a
Continue reading Mold Design Workshop: Silicone Actuator Design

Intention of the work: The intention of this work is to bring attention to the climate crisis, specifically criticizing the lack of responsiveness that many people have. Within any of our lifetimes, millions of acres of land will be underwater, including parts of New York City and dozens of other major cities. The piece is
Continue reading Infusing Art with Technology

Interest 1: Self-folding structures Interest 2: Semi-“Conscious” Kinetic Sculptures

Paper Reviewed: Development of A New Soft Robotic Module Using Compressed Air and Shape Memory Alloys M. N. Golchin, A. Hadi and B. Tarvirdizadeh. Development of A New Soft Robotic Module Using Compressed Air and Shape Memory Alloys. In 2021 9th RSI International Conference on Robotics and Mechatronics (ICRoM), Tehran, Iran, Islamic Republic of. 517-522. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRoM54204.2021.9663519
Continue reading Peer Review

Root Paper: An active guide wire with shape memory alloy bending actuator fabricated by room temperature process Mineta, T., Mitsui, T., Watanabe, Y., Kobayashi, S., Haga, Y., and Esashi, M.. An Active Guide Wire With Shape Memory Alloy Bending Actuator Fabricated by Room Temperature Process. Sens. Actuators, A, 97–98(1):632–637, 2002. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0924-4247(02)00021-3 Related Paper 1: Development
Continue reading Lateral Literature Search

Paper 1: Thermally Tunable, Self-Healing Composites for Soft Robotic Applications (citation 40) Polyurethane foams and 3D-printed lattice structures were covered in wax and tested at various temperatures. The results indicated that wax-coated structures have the potential to act as a much more controllable medium for robotics, allowing for controlled changes and repairs to be made to the
Continue reading Reading, Searching, and Skimming