Write Code will travel*....... *(Draw)

(Untitled)

Graphite on paper 210x148mm

From Friday 30/11/12 - 3/12/12 I was asked to take part in a workshop at the University of applied Arts (Angewandte) in Vienna. The workshop was based around fabrication methods for the development of soft robotic actuators initially outlined by the Whitesides research group (Harvard). This particular method was the central focus for my research thesis on the AAC Adaptive Architecture and Computation MSc that I completed this year. 

The aim of the workshop was to introduce new people to the field of soft robotics with a view to developing new perspectives. 

In Particular subjects explored were:

Scalability

Robustness

Luminesence

Fluid actuation as an alternative to compressed air 

The workshop itself was organised and hosted by The Liquid Things (2012) research project at the Angewandte, with additional contributions from Ruairi Glynn and Manuel Kretzer. 

When I was a student at the Slade I was working largely with abstracted form grammars as pictured above. Now that I am coming to the end of the MSc at the Bartlett, I'm thinking about how the Soft Robotic actuators that I have been working on could form some kind of addition to this, and in general how they could be integrated into creative practices elsewhere...

The main thing that I would hope to have come out of my work is that in looking at the problems regarding material tolerance and durability, I have suggested an alternative strategy that would enable a greater degree of 'free play' in designing the actuators. This has largely to do with scaling to some degree, but above that, an understanding of the aspect ratio of the internal network is key to success in my opinion.  In lieu of a fully formed model of the behaviour (there isn't one in existence) I think there is a place for soft robotics in the design context, but there are some fundamental principles that can really cause major problems, especially if they are to be integrated into a creative work flow. I hope that my work has gone some way towards overcoming these problems and will enable like minded thinkers to get involved in this field. 

A Visual Study of Breathing patterns

SOftware Development

Pretty early on I decided to build myself a piece of parametric software to define the geometry for the actuators. Actually I built two separate programs... The first was essentially the standard parallel layout with the central channel and the second was based on Bezier curves for the main component of the network.

When defining input parameters over multiple iterations... Having a program set up proved incredibly useful in labour saving as I was having to draw all my geometry manually previously which just got tedious. Also, it was great to have all of the input variables stored automatically (a spreadsheet is exported with the geometry)... I had the feeling that generating data based on the actual material performance would be as easy but hmmm... I guess we live and learn!

Decius Mus...