oribotics [network]

origami tanteidan 13

This years Tanteidan was very good fun, and very informative. I met Miura-sensei, an expert in mechanised origami, and a wonderful inspirational man who’s work is renowned around the world. He shared some of the process in the development of his space projects.

Below you can see a small range of works that were exhibited during the convention.

leaf mech

This video shows the mechanics for the oribotic leaves. its a simple design but the neat thing here is how using Blender saves me building the model to actually test if it will work. I can be confident that this design will function as I need it to.

new design for leaf/flower petal

Firgelli PQ-12f Micro Linear Actuator

These are great. Micro Linear Actuators, made by Figelli.

I bought a couple and tested them, at the time they had 2 types of the PQ-12, an s for speed type, and an f for force type. We ended up going with the f for force. They aren’t cheap at US$53 each, but from our testing so far they are perfect for the job we have for them.

And my big shipment of 15 units just arrived all in order.

Mylar as laminated hinge

Made an experiment today after reading that mylar was being used as a materia for solar sails. I thought if its good enough for NASA its good enough for me. The result is a quite springy waterbomb base. It has potential. I used a 75micro sheet laminated with 300gsm card.

Oribotics [giant]

It’s been a while since I last made an entry, been busy, got married had a baby, and applied for more funding (not necessarily in that order - the funding that is…)

So I thought I’d better come back with something BIG. Giant in fact.

This image is from a recent application to the Australia Council for the Arts, wherein I applied for funding to research the creation of giant oribots. Its been a long term dream and I’d love to build a big one a public artwork. The research grant is to prove the concept, and develop necessary documentation to make the build possible. We’ll see how it goes.

Network diagram

This is the network diagram that describes the relationships between audience, oribots and the various networks and computer functions. Its presented at a high level of abstraction, and the color coding is intergral to understanding the document. Take note of the colours used in the network field, and the colours used in the outline of the text description boxes.

Download this PDF to see the diagram with the full brief for the hardware programmer Ray.

Oribotics [network]

The next evolution of Oribotics will be oribotics [network]. Supported by Arts Victoria’s arts innovation fund. The work will premiere at Federation Square in Melbourne in October 2007. The work will consist of a new generation of folding robots that each have built in wifi and bluetooth networking.

The core project team is Matthew Gardiner and Ray Gardiner, the team that delivered the earlier two versions. We are extending the team in the production stage with an industrial design/fabrication company. I met the guys at Design Sense when working on Phillip Adam’s Origami work. They fabricated several large scale folding sets from small prototype designs, and so on that basis Design Sense will work on refining the design of the prototype robots to the final polished products.

Our project partners are Federation Square who are providing:
Studio space for the development of the work
Exhibition space in the Atrium

Aphids are auspicing the project, encompassing project and financial management, as well general support and assistance in securing additional funding or support from other arts bodies. All round good guys!

Prototype flower

Here is some video for the prototype flower [7.7MB], and an animation showing the lever design for the November showing of oribotics.

Ars Electronica

Ars has been running for 2 days now. Its fantastic, the mood here is really positive with so much good work. This is just a short note to post this url of me and some other things on an Austrian radio website.

http://fm4.orf.at/gerlinde/205133/main