Thursday, July 29, 2010

2010 Second Semester - Automation & robotics - a design challenge

This semester is about Robotics & Automation.

We had a visit from Tania, a clothes designer, who works with kids who have Sensory Integration Dysfunction (SID) & enjoy, or feel safe & calm, in a "crush" or "squeeze" situation.
The challenge is to design 'crush clothing' that the kids can wear, which can be programmed for different 'crush' areas, e.g. shoulders, stomach, arms, back, chest etcetera, slowly releases the 'crush effect' over, say, 20 minutes, & logs the time, duration, kid's name, crush areas, & the like.

It sounds interesting.

I like the idea of:
* an elastic wind-&-pull mechanism,
* programmable tensioner selection,
* slow-release friction-brake,
* data-logging (maybe external EEPROM for each kid),
* 2-wire I2C from a USB connector.

Another idea is the use of compressed air-pockets.

Also mentioned were "air muscles', which sound good, especially if combined with elastic - one "muscle" could pull several coordinated threads..

Designing this could be fun.
.

No comments:

Post a Comment