Final Project¶
My final project has not changed in essence from what I proposed in the first week of the Fab Academy:
The problem and the solution¶
In Arequipa, the city where I live, high levels of solar radiation are an increasingly important problem. In response to this, my final project is a kinetic cover that with the movement of its parts avoids solar radiation when it reaches harmful values for health.
The masterpiece will be a modular prototype to be installed in any place where exposure to solar radiation is an inconvenience. The parts of the cover or roof that will open or close will be inspired by the movement of the flowers due to the effect of light.
The Texao, the representative flower of Arequipa and in danger of extinction, and its closing and opening movements caused by the change of temperature is the inspiration to generate a beautiful and dynamic proposal.
Inspiring previous work¶
Kinetic architecture, hand in hand with parametric architecture, has gained a lot of prominence in the last decade. Several prototypes have been produced, among which we can highlight the following because they are closer to my proposal.
Kinetic Smart Facade Prototype with Arduino
Diffusion Choir
Youtube video
The Mechanism¶
The first thing I designed from 3D printing week was the gears. This I started to do in the Computer Aided Design week
I then improved the lengths, the fit of the gears and also designed the servo motor holder that I would use along with a comb type part that could move the gear worm.
I used SLA printing with resin using Form2 because it allowed me better finishing and therefore better gear fit which was not easily possible with FDM printing.
The Pergola¶
For the design of the pergola that will support the opening and closing mechanisms, I decided to design a modular structure in MDF.
The first tests were made in cardboard to determine the best fastening of the mechanism. In addition, the design proposed to generate an interstice to hide the cables.
Then I designed in Autocad each part of the pergola to be manufactured by laser cutting in 3mm MDF. Pressfits and cable holes were considered.
The Flowers and Leaves¶
The other important part of the design was the flowers that were to open and close with the help of the mechanism described above. In order not to overload the design with so many moving parts, it was decided to have static parts (that would never move) which were a kind of leaves.
The leaves were manufactured by creating a high-density expanded polystyrene mould. The special cutting machine we have in the laboratory was used for this purpose.
Then using the thermoforming machine and using polypropylene sheets we shaped each leaf.
Finally the fabric specially purchased for this purpose was cut on the Epilog Laser. The fabric is UV protected.
For the flowers, only UV-protected fabric was cut, which was then assembled on the mechanism designed and explained above.
The Electronics Design, Production and Programming¶
For the electronics I decided to design a board to receive the signal from the UV sensor and to control the servomotors. Because I had an Attiny 85, the design was adapted to this microcontroller.
In Eagle I designed the board as shown in the picture.
Then with the help of the CNC Tormach I milled the plate on a copper sheet.
The components were soldered to get the board ready.
For programming I used the Arduino software in which I programmed the reading of the UV sensor signals and the movement of the servomotors in response.
In the following video the circuit is tested with one input (UV sensor) and one output (Servomotor).
Materials¶
| Qty | Description | Price | Link | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6mm MDF panel | 50.00 $ | https://es.aliexpress.com/ | |
| 1 | Grey resin | 50.00 $ | http://amazon.com | |
| 2 | UV protection fabric | 20.00 $ | http://amazon.com | |
| 2 | UV sensor | 15.00 $ | https://es.aliexpress.com/ | |
| 4 | Servomotors 9g | 15.00 $ | https://es.aliexpress.com/ | |
The approximate total cost for the manufacture of the final product will be US$ 150.