Computational Design and Optimization of Non-Circular Gears

We study a general form of gears known as non‐circular gears that can transfer periodic motion with variable speed through their irregular shapes and eccentric rotation centers. To design functional non‐circular gears is nontrivial, since the gear pair must have compatible shape to keep in contact during motion, so the driver gear can push the follower to rotate via a bounded torque that the motor can exert. To address the challenge, we model the geometry, kinematics, and dynamics of non‐circular gears, formulate the design problem as a shape optimization, and identify necessary independent variables in the optimization search. Taking a pair of 2D shapes as inputs, our method optimizes them into gears by locating the rotation center on each shape, minimally modifying each shape to form the gear's boundary, and constructing appropriate teeth for gear meshing. Our optimized gears not only resemble the inputs but can also drive the motion with relatively small torque. We demonstrate our method's usability by generating a rich variety of non‐circular gears from various inputs and 3D printing several of the

On shape design and optimization of gerotor pumps

A gerotor pump is a two-piece mechanism where two rotational components, interior and exterior, engage each other via a rotational motion to transfer a fluid in a direction parallel to their rotational axes. A natural question arises on what shape of the gerotor is the optimal one in the sense of maximum fluid being pumped for a unit of time, given the constraint of a fixed material needed to manufacture the pump. As there is no closed-formula to answer this question, we propose a new algorithm to design and optimize the shape of gerotor pumps to be as efficient as possible. The proposed algorithm is based on a fast construction of the envelope of the interior component and subsequent optimization. We demonstrate our algorithm on a benchmark gerotor and show that the optimized solution increases the estimated flowrate by 16%. We also use our algorithm to study the effect of the number of teeth on the cavity area of a gerotor.RYC-2017-22649 funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and EI ESF "ESF Investing in your future

Crafting chaos: computational design of contraptions with complex behaviour

The 2010s saw the democratisation of digital fabrication technologies. Although this phenomenon made fabrication more accessible, physical assemblies displaying a complex behaviour are still difficult to design. While many methods support the creation of complex shapes and assemblies, managing a complex behaviour is often assumed to be a tedious aspect of the design process. As a result, the complex parts of the behaviour are either deemed negligible (when possible) or managed directly by the software, without offering much fine-grained user control. This thesis argues that efficient methods can support designers seeking complex behaviours by increasing their level of control over these behaviours. To demonstrate this, I study two types of artistic devices that are particularly challenging to design: drawing machines, and chain reaction contraptions. These artefacts’ complex behaviour can change dramatically even as their components are moved by a small amount. The first case study aims to facilitate the exploration and progressive refinement of complex patterns generated by drawing machines under drawing-level user-defined constraints. The approach was evaluated with a user study, and several machines drawing the expected pattern were fabricated. In the second case study, I propose an algorithm to optimise the layout of complex chain reaction contraptions described by a causal graph of events in order to make them robust to uncertainty. Several machines optimised with this method were successfully assembled and run. This thesis makes the following contributions: (1) support complex behaviour specifications; (2) enable users to easily explore design variations that respect these specifications; and (3) optimise the layout of a physical assembly to maximise the probability of real-life success