3,984 research outputs found

    Digital fabrication of custom interactive objects with rich materials

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    As ubiquitous computing is becoming reality, people interact with an increasing number of computer interfaces embedded in physical objects. Today, interaction with those objects largely relies on integrated touchscreens. In contrast, humans are capable of rich interaction with physical objects and their materials through sensory feedback and dexterous manipulation skills. However, developing physical user interfaces that offer versatile interaction and leverage these capabilities is challenging. It requires novel technologies for prototyping interfaces with custom interactivity that support rich materials of everyday objects. Moreover, such technologies need to be accessible to empower a wide audience of researchers, makers, and users. This thesis investigates digital fabrication as a key technology to address these challenges. It contributes four novel design and fabrication approaches for interactive objects with rich materials. The contributions enable easy, accessible, and versatile design and fabrication of interactive objects with custom stretchability, input and output on complex geometries and diverse materials, tactile output on 3D-object geometries, and capabilities of changing their shape and material properties. Together, the contributions of this thesis advance the fields of digital fabrication, rapid prototyping, and ubiquitous computing towards the bigger goal of exploring interactive objects with rich materials as a new generation of physical interfaces.Computer werden zunehmend in GerĂ€ten integriert, mit welchen Menschen im Alltag interagieren. Heutzutage basiert diese Interaktion weitgehend auf Touchscreens. Im Kontrast dazu steht die reichhaltige Interaktion mit physischen Objekten und Materialien durch sensorisches Feedback und geschickte Manipulation. Interfaces zu entwerfen, die diese FĂ€higkeiten nutzen, ist allerdings problematisch. HierfĂŒr sind Technologien zum Prototyping neuer Interfaces mit benutzerdefinierter InteraktivitĂ€t und KompatibilitĂ€t mit vielfĂ€ltigen Materialien erforderlich. Zudem sollten solche Technologien zugĂ€nglich sein, um ein breites Publikum zu erreichen. Diese Dissertation erforscht die digitale Fabrikation als SchlĂŒsseltechnologie, um diese Probleme zu adressieren. Sie trĂ€gt vier neue Design- und FabrikationsansĂ€tze fĂŒr das Prototyping interaktiver Objekte mit reichhaltigen Materialien bei. Diese ermöglichen einfaches, zugĂ€ngliches und vielseitiges Design und Fabrikation von interaktiven Objekten mit individueller Dehnbarkeit, Ein- und Ausgabe auf komplexen Geometrien und vielfĂ€ltigen Materialien, taktiler Ausgabe auf 3D-Objektgeometrien und der FĂ€higkeit ihre Form und Materialeigenschaften zu Ă€ndern. Insgesamt trĂ€gt diese Dissertation zum Fortschritt der Bereiche der digitalen Fabrikation, des Rapid Prototyping und des Ubiquitous Computing in Richtung des grĂ¶ĂŸeren Ziels, der Exploration interaktiver Objekte mit reichhaltigen Materialien als eine neue Generation von physischen Interfaces, bei

    Freeform Fabrication of Ionomeric Polymer-Metal Composite Actuators

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    Ionomeric polymer-metal composite (IPMC) actuators are a type of soft electromechanically active material which offers large displacement, rapid motion with only ~1V stimulus. IPMC’s are entering commercial applications in toys (Ashley 2003) and biomedical devices (Soltanpour 2001; Shahinpoor 2002; Shahinpoor, Shahinpoor et al. 2003; Soltanpour and Shahinpoor 2003; Soltanpour and Shahinpoor 2004), but unfortunately they can only actuate by bending, limiting their utility. Freeform fabrication offers a possible means of producing IPMC with novel geometry and/or tightly integrated with mechanisms which can yield linear or more complex motion. We have developed materials and processes which allow us to freeform fabricate complete IPMC actuators and their fabrication substrate which will allow integration within other freeform fabricated devices. We have produced simple IPMC’s using our multiple material freeform fabrication system, and have demonstrated operation in air for more than 40 minutes and 256 bidirectional actuation cycles. The output stress scaled to input power is two orders of magnitude inferior to that of the best reported performance for devices produced in the traditional manner, but only slightly inferior to devices produced in a more similar manner. Possible explanations and paths to improvement are presented. Freeform fabrication of complete electroactive polymer actuators in unusual geometries, with tailored actuation behavior, and integrated with other freeform fabricated active components, will enable advances in biomedical device engineering, biologically inspired robotics, and other fields. This work constitutes the first demonstration of complete, functional, IPMC actuators produced entirely by freeform fabrication.Mechanical Engineerin

    YUSOF @GHANI

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    PIC16 small prototyping board is the microcontroller development board that holding a microcontroller and other required circuitry used for application or embedded system development. The board is directly useful to an application developer, without require spending time and effort in developing the controller board. The purpose of this project is to develop a working prototype, PIC16 small prototyping board that used for rapid prototyping. The board is based on PIC16F628A microcontroller. The board design is similar to Arduino Uno board. ExpressPCB and ExpressSCH are used to design the board before it is fabricated. After that, the prototype is fabricated and the testing is carried out to observe the performance of the device. The switches and LEDs are placed on the board to test each input output of the board. The result of the tested board is summarized in the end of this project

    ECPlotter: A Toolkit for Rapid Prototyping of Electrochromic Displays

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    Micro-manufacturing : research, technology outcomes and development issues

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    Besides continuing effort in developing MEMS-based manufacturing techniques, latest effort in Micro-manufacturing is also in Non-MEMS-based manufacturing. Research and technological development (RTD) in this field is encouraged by the increased demand on micro-components as well as promised development in the scaling down of the traditional macro-manufacturing processes for micro-length-scale manufacturing. This paper highlights some EU funded research activities in micro/nano-manufacturing, and gives examples of the latest development in micro-manufacturing methods/techniques, process chains, hybrid-processes, manufacturing equipment and supporting technologies/device, etc., which is followed by a summary of the achievements of the EU MASMICRO project. Finally, concluding remarks are given, which raise several issues concerning further development in micro-manufacturing
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