Impact of DIY Home Manufacturing with 3D Printing on the Toy and Game Market

International audienceThe 2020 toy and game market is projected to be US$135 billion.To determine if 3D printing could affect these markets if consumers offset purchases by 3D printing free designs, this study investigates the 100 most popular downloaded designs at MyMiniFactory in a month. Savings are quantified for using a Lulzbot Mini 3D printer and three filament types: commercial filament, pellet-extruded filament, and post-consumer waste converted to filament with a recyclebot. Case studies probed the quality of: (1) six common complex toys; (2) Lego blocks; and (3) the customizability of open source board games. All filaments analyzed saved the user over 75$60 million/year in offset purchases. The most common savings fell by 40%–90% in total savings, which came with the ability to make novel toys and games. The results of this study show consumers can generate higher value items for less money using the open source distributed manufacturing paradigm. It appears clear that consumer do-it-yourself (DIY) manufacturing is set to have a significant impact on the toy and game markets in the future

Impact of DIY home manufacturing with 3D printing on the toy and game market

The 2020 toy and game market is projected to be US$135 billion. To determine if 3D printing could affect these markets if consumers offset purchases by 3D printing free designs, this study investigates the 100 most popular downloaded designs at MyMiniFactory in a month. Savings are quantified for using a Lulzbot Mini 3D printer and three filament types: commercial filament, pellet-extruded filament, and post-consumer waste converted to filament with a recyclebot. Case studies probed the quality of: (1) six common complex toys; (2) Lego blocks; and (3) the customizability of open source board games. All filaments analyzed saved the user over 75$60 million/year in offset purchases. The most common savings fell by 40%–90% in total savings, which came with the ability to make novel toys and games. The results of this study show consumers can generate higher value items for less money using the open source distributed manufacturing paradigm. It appears clear that consumer do-it-yourself (DIY) manufacturing is set to have a significant impact on the toy and game markets in the future

Overview of technologies for building robots in the classroom

This paper aims to give an overview of technologies that can be used to implement robotics within an educational context. We discuss complete robotics systems as well as projects that implement only certain elements of a robotics system, such as electronics, hardware, or software. We believe that Maker Movement and DIY trends offers many new opportunities for teaching and feel that they will become much more prominent in the future. Products and projects discussed in this paper are: Mindstorms, Vex, Arduino, Dwengo, Raspberry Pi, MakeBlock, OpenBeam, BitBeam, Scratch, Blockly and ArduBlock

Legal and Social Implications of the 3D Printing Revolution

ABSTRACT Emerging 3D printing technologies bring with it the potential to transform everyday consumers into manufacturers of every product imaginable. However, this impending wave of newfound technological capability is bound to crash against our present conventional system of laws and regulations. In this paper, the strengths and weaknesses of our current intellectual property framework are examined, and its ability to tackle the future 3D printing market is assessed. Particular attention is paid to our modern formation of copyright and patent law, including an analysis of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the Repair-Reconstruction Doctrine and other substantial legal protocol. The legal battle between the Napster file-sharing service and the larger music industry is also explored, as it provides key insight into similar intellectual property divergences that may soon drive a stake between 3D printing businesses and more traditional manufacturers of physical goods. Finally, this paper suggests modifications to be made towards traditional sales models, the Repair-Reconstruction Doctrine, the implementation of the DMCA protections, and our application of the Fair Use Doctrine

Using Inclusive Design to Improve the Accessibility of Informal STEM Education, for Children with Visual Impairment

In this research paper, STEM workshops are designed to provide experiences for twenty-five blind and visually impaired children at a summer camp, with STEM activities that are engaging and fun as well as educational. The aspiration is that the participants should have equitable experiences to their peers without visual impairment, so that they may get the same enjoyment from the STEM workshops as any other participants. Another research goal is to investigate the accessibility features of various commercially available robots, and consider the stability of accessibility features as robots are updated and replaced over time. An analytical autoethnographic approach and an Inclusive Design Model are used, which employ the researcher’s experience as a blind person and children’s feedback to inform ongoing design revisions to the Informal STEM Education activities. Children experimented with playing with and programming robotic toys such as a Bee-bot, Cubetto, Cubelets and Lego Mindstorm EV3, using modified mats and building materials. Video recording, group interviews and direct observation were the data collection tools used. Although all of the STEM education tools used in this study required at least some modification to make them more accessible for the participants, the amount of modification needed varied widely. Some tools were nearly accessible out of the box, while others could not easily be made accessible at all. This suggests many avenues for future research into the accessibility of tools for STEM education, especially robots. The inclusive design of some potential STEM education activities which were not tested, for lack of time, are also described

Additive Manufacturing Technologies and Applications

The present Special Issue proposes articles in the area of Additive Manufacturing with particular attention to the different employed technologies and the several possible applications. The main investigated technologies are the Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) and the Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM). These methodologies, combined with the Computer Aided Design (CAD), provide important advantages. Numerical, analytical and experimental knowledge and models are proposed to exploit the potential advantages given by 3D printing for the production of modern systems and structures in aerospace, mechanical, civil and biomedical engineering fields. The 11 selected papers propose different additive manufacturing methodologies and related applications and studies

Creating DYOR: Do your own robot an educational robotic toy kit

[EN] This project presents DYOR: an educational robotic toy kit how it helps the school students to get better understanding of the aspects of engineering before they get ready to choose their career. It provides an ideal platform enabling school students understand various elements like science, manufacturing technology, mathematics, design and apply their knowledge in these areas effectively with additional inputs like programming, logical analysis to create solutions for the given task.[ES] Este proyecto presenta DYOR: un kit de juguete robótico educativa cómo ayuda a los estudiantes de la escuela para obtener una mejor comprensión de los aspectos de la ingeniería antes de que se disponen a elegir su carrera. Proporciona una plataforma ideal estudiantes de la escuela que permite comprender diversos elementos como la ciencia, la tecnología de fabricación, las matemáticas, el diseño y aplican sus conocimientos en estas áreas eficazmente con entradas adicionales como la programación, análisis lógico para crear soluciones para la tarea encomendada.Singh, H. (2016). Creating DYOR: Do your own robot an educational robotic toy kit. Universitat Politècnica de València. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/67515TFG