Class 1
- Please make a single slide of 1 project you've made that is either soft or that you're proud of
- Have an answer ready of why you're interested in softness OR your goal in taking this class
- As someone who has moved around a lot in adult life, i’ve grown attached to objects and their memories and this is a way to anthropormofizing them in fun ways
- Think about what softness is
About the class
Play, and expanding on original ideas. Goal is to develop original concepts and projects.
For missed classes, can send video or animated gif.
Moses Center = accommodation. 4 unexcused absences = fail.
There will be guest critique.
75% of blog posts. But I actually absolutely need to do all blog posts.
Office hours: Wednesdays or Fridays.
Q: Half of the weeks will have a hands on component.
2-4 hours weekly minimum.
There are a lot of robots that are soft but the function isn’t coming from it, so we’re going to exclude them from what we’re thinking of.
Some are controlled by light, others by chemicals.
It’s soft to be molded around the object, and then gets hard to pick it up.
Disney:
Robots at themeparks
Matt mentioned Robots designed for elderly care or extreme autism.
Cody: human compliance.
Stability: spring loaded legs.
In traditional robots, staying still needs power.
Continuous Robots = their motion is all around the component.
Shape memory material = always goes back to one shape.
Monostability
What is softness
Keeps material integrity; compliant; responds to pressure; bends; squishes; stretches.
Invokes feelings of peace; tactility.
Chain mail = making stainless steel soft through altering the form.
Some fabrics that aren’t meant to be stretchy because they have holes become stretchy.
By changing form, we have changed properties.
1 time gripper out of shrink plastics.
See toys → ask what if robot.
Q:
Criteria to assess material potential
- Waterproof
- Flammable
- returns to original shape
- Elasticity
- Smell
- Taste
- does it need to undergo any changes
- degradable
- will it leave any particles
- cycling / durability / force to break
- Look at labs and how they conduct their tests; what properties they’re testing in a formal way.
- Ability to undergo tests
- Magnetism
Assignments
- Look around before choosing; pick object or topic within Soft Robotics
- Look at CES
- Queue it to start point
- Put all of it in a blog
- Find soft materials
- Go to a toystore.
- Bring my own scissors and straws.
Week 2
Soft System Modeling Simulation systems
Gerber -
Solid Works -
What do they have in common?
Services or Mesh Based.
Physics Engine very specific
Genesis: AI Tools for Robotic Simulation
Inflatable
Self Folding Structures
3D architected soft machine; More polygons on the more flexible parts of the body and much less on the stiffer ones.
Build physical object and then put into the software their properties.
Even Silicone is always getting micro tears. So even the material is never always the same.
How to quantify softness?
Proprioception is the body's unconscious, "sixth sense" of its position, movement, and orientation in space, utilizing receptors in muscles, joints, and the inner ear. It enables automatic coordination, balance, and force regulation, often termed body awareness
Evolution Gym is easy. Where ITP people can help: spend time on Interface design; hard work but it’s what’s needed.
3 cable controls is the minimum you need to go in every direction.
Soft Roman Shades = same mechanisms as for “robotic” dresses.
Cable pulling systems, like the soft roman shades, need an anchor point.
On the robotic dress, the anchor point was hoops. Needs to go all around.
don’t make a straw hand.
Ask MJ for vids from class.
If using motors:
High torque continuous servo (360º servo)
- has built in gear box (mechanical advantage)
- doesn’t risk slipping like stepper motor