Aplications and Implications
Link to class: Aplications and Implications
This week's assignment is to plan and document a final project that integrates the range of units covered:
what will it do?
who's done what beforehand?
what materials and components will be required?
where will they come from?
how much will it cost?
what parts and systems will be made?
what processes will be used?
what tasks need to be completed?
what questions need to be answered?
what is the schedule?
how will it be evaluated?
Projects can be separate or joint, but need to show individual mastery of all of the skills
where possible, you should make rather than buy the parts of your project.
My idea for the final project is a bird that will move in the morning and lights up in the afternoon. Originally I thought this bird should be so big it would have given shadow to people walking on the street, but the idea of making a origami bird stick with me, so instead of just making a parasol, what I think would be more interesting is developing an animal that would interact with its environment.
Also, I want to make it as "green" as possible, regarding the use of materials, components and electricity.
What will it do?
My bird is going to do two things:
1. It has a sensor that will detect daylight. When this happens it will initate a sequence of movement, moving his wings, like starting to begin his flight. In the afternoon, when it gets dark, the same sequence is initiated.
2. It also has LED lights, so when it gets dark, the lights switch on.
Who's done what before hand?
What inspire me to make a interactive bird instead of just a big parasol was mainly this video of Theo Hansen´s job that Beno shared with me.
Also the work of Kinetic Wave Sculptures made by Reuben Margolin.
This truly inspired me to make something else, working with animals and the way they move. So I start analizing the way a bird moves it wings and found some interesting videos on youtube about the movement of the wings of a bird.
With this in mind, I understand the mecanism of the wings had to be carefully thought.
What materials and components will be required? // Where will they come from?
For the mecanism of the wings I've already used wood, the lightest I've found on the materials given by the Fab Lab. For the wings I'm going to use paper as in origami. The mecanism of the bird is going to be powered by a wheel, which is going to move using a Servo motor. The lights are LEDs. And because I want it to be a permanent object that will be available in urban spaces, it is going to be pluged in. My first intention was to make it sustainable by adding fotovoltaic cells to it, but that would be something I'll add later on. For the time being, it is going to be powered by the electrical current.
The some of the components for the servo motor aren't all available at Fab Lab. The components for the light LED system aren't available either, because I'm going to use recicled christmas LEDs, so I'm going to buy them at a big electrical market we have here in Lima.
For the base that is going to hold the bird, I'm going to use a bamboo pole, because it is a biodegradable material and its structure is very resistent.
How much will it cost?
The materials I've been using for the mecanism are recicled wood parts I've found, since there's a lot of wood that is wasted by other users of the laser machine. This is good for two reasons: the reuse of material that where going to be thrown away and also because it didn't add any susbstancial cost to the project.
Regarding the components, I have a rough estimate of US$ 46.00 to be spent on the servo motor, light and components.
The bamboo pole cost is
US$ 9.60.
The paper that is going to be used on the wings comes from old newspapers, again in the sense of recycling and reusing materials. This is paper available at my house and for future projects it could be recolected from all the people in the community that don't know what to do with old newspaper. For now it doesn't add up any significant cost to the project, since I already have it available.
The total cost of the project: US$ 55.60
What parts and systems will be made? // What processes will be used?
The mecanism and the built of the servo motor system and the light system is going to be made, also the wings that will be made of paper. I'm not going to build a servo motor because I believe I can use the time to improve much more the bird movements which are my main goal. The wood structure and the paper are going to be cut on the laser machine. The boards for the whole project are going to be made on the Roland Modela.
Schedule
Since I don't have to much time, all the next 15 days are completely dedicated to this project. So far I'm completing my first goal: making the mechanism in two days. It is done and working. Next on the agenda is building the servo motor and making it work on the "skeleton" of the bird.
13, 14 > Making the mechanism. (DONE)
15, 16, 17, 18 > Making the servo motor and test it out on the mechanism.
19, 20, 21, 22 > Making the lightning system.
23, 24, 25, 26 > Making the wings of the bird with old newspapers.
27, 28, 29 > Test, re-test and improve possible flaws.
Questions
Here at Fab Lab Uni there's a course that mix the use of the laser machine with origami-like paper folding. I'm excited about the idea of making the wings with this system, but because I'm new to this, I have a lot of doubts regarding the actual plasticity of the material I can make and what extra weight this is going to add to my bird and what effect this could have on the use of only ONE servo motor.
Finally, this is the mechanism I've made in this couple of days. Although I've changed some parts of it with acrylic, I believe it imitates pretty nicely the movement of a bird wings:
Some improvements made to the wheel:
