Saturday, September 26, 2009

Theo Jansen, Reubin Margolin, etc.

So this week we learned about a new type of design where each part is different from the next, but in gradual increments. It is amazing how movement can be created with small changes in the orientation, position, or shape of the different parts.
We are trying to "channel" the thinking of great people like Theo Jansen.


His self-sustaining animals are very intriguing. I watched a video of him speaking at this conference (http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/theo_jansen_creates_new_creatures.htmlm/talks/lang/eng/theo_jansen_creates_new_creatures.html), and he demonstrated how his animals prevent walking into the ocean. He had this tube that is in front and normally has air flow through it. Since water has a different density than air, when the water enters this tube it pushes some lever or something which causes the animal to change directions, I don't remember the full details but it's really fascinating.

Another person to highlight is Reubin Margolin.


He was featured for MAKE magazine and they did a short TV blurb about him. He makes all these different machines/gizmos that move in wave motions. This video explains it FAR better than I can. It's 10 mins long, but every minute is interesting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dehXioMIKg0

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Digital Project....

So our next tool we are learning is Digital Project. This program is very interesting, but also can be very frustrating. I did the tutorial (http://www.paramod.net/post016/tutorial001.htm) on Wednesday, it took me quite a bit of time to complete. I could not for the life of me get the lines to zig-zag and not have all the other blue stuff appear!! I was pulling my hair out, cursing, etc. etc. I think tomorrow in class will be a rough day for me, because I am still very slow with this program. The fact that the tutorial has to be done AT the Art&Architecture was very frustrating. Instead of being able to sit down and explore the program, I was hindered by the lab being occupied and I had a hard time working in the lab. Last week, at least in our group, the Architects felt they had less of a role in the project. Tomorrow, the Architects will get to shine.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Project 2: Arduino HW - Chemical Burn

So for our SmartSurfaces class we had a HW assignment to make our Arduino Board (http://www.arduino.cc/) do something different with the LEDs and also we had to make a creative covering (lampshade).

The tutorials for this were VERY clear and simple to do. I enjoyed this project a lot, and am going to be messing around with my board. What I personally loved most about this board, was that I know more about circuits then I ever did when I took Physics 240. I don't understand why this type of board is not included in the class, everything clicks so much more now. I showed my mom the LEDs and she loved the colors and now wants me to make something for her room with the lights.
Anyways here is a picture of the final project...then I'll explan.

So my biggest issue was the construction of something that covered the LEDs but also covered the board and all the wires. So instead of covering all of that I decided to make a slender tube to cover the LEDs. The tube was made of a combination of wax paper and packing material.

I didn't want to just do a slender tube, so I originally was trying to make like a flower bouquet with the leaves of a "Money Plant" that would change colors. I then discovered that when a piece of paper was angled in the right way that the light reflected in the shape of a flame.

So then I decided to make a candle as my covering. I wrote the program so that it would stay on the orange color for a few seconds, then to immitate someone walking by the candle, I made the flame "flicker" but when it "flickered" it changed colors to like green, red, turqoise etc (See pic below). I called my project "Chemical Burn" because of how different colors when burned give off different colors (like red, blue etc.) so I thought it was fitting in that sense too.

Vortex Induced Vibrations for Energy Collection

First off, I would like to congratulate U of M for beating Notre Dame....such a great game. Once we tighten up our holes in the middle and work on our safeties a bit, our defense could be pretty good.

Anyways, back to business. I stumbled upon an interesting article today relating to Vortex Induced Vibrations. This is a project going on in the U of M naval engineering department (http://www.vortexhydroenergy.com/html/technology.html). For most applications, these vibrations are meant to be minimized. However, for this application, the vibrations are amplified, and harvested as an alternative energy source.

This energy source mimics how a school of fish moves through the ocean. As illustrated in the picture above (from the vortexhydroenergy website), what happens is when the current (of a much larger body) hits a object (o a smaller body) it changes the flow of water creating vortexes. Vortexes are created and shedded depending upon the movement of the body. Vortexes are shedded on the downside of their motion. So when a body is pushed from north to south, the south end of the body will have no vortex whereas the north end of the body will have a vortex. This alternating motion creates an oscillation and its energy can be harvested.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Welcome!!

Hi! My name is Michelle. I'm a student at the University of Michigan studying Materials Science engineering. I am a part of what I call "Project Primary Colors". Odd name I know...but I am a part of the beginning of something truly amazing, I swear.

Project Primary Colors refers to a class I am taking in which Art&Design, Architecture, and Engineering students are brought together to collaborate and solve real-life issues. The class is called SmartSurfaces, but I call this project primary colors because each discipline alone can produce only so many "hues" of things. However, when you combine the primary colors what do you get? You get all the possibilities. This is how I view this class.

For my blog, I will be mainly discussing any interesting articles I find that inspire me, either for new solutions to already exisiting problems, or things that I never would have thought of.

WildCharge - Article 1
The first thing I am going to discuss is WildCharge (http://www.wildcharge.com/). This company has created a wire-free power source pad-like device.


It is hard to see from the above picture, but how this works is that there is a "Star Map" that is stuck onto the back of your cell phone or laptop or whatever you want to charge. The cellphone etc. is then placed onto the pad, which then charges the object. The "Star Map" is specially arranged electrical contacts that "complete the circuit" (creates a closed electrical curcuit) when placed on the pad, and thus then charges the device.

If something is on the pad that isn't supposed to be, the electrical circuit will then be open and no charge will flow. Once the object is removed, the pad works as normal. So for example, if you put your hand on the pad, nothing will happen because the second you put your hand down the circuit is not closed anymore.
Appeal:
When I first heard about this device my mind immediately thought of UNIVERSITIES. The number of times I have gone to the library and have NOT had an outlet is probably greater than the number of hairs I have on my head (and no I'm not bald...but have pulled out some hair from the frustration of not having an outlet)!! If these could be placed on study tables or buses etc. this would be a life saver.

However, this invention also sparked a different thought process. This pad is still dependent on having an electrical outlet somewhere... So how could this be improved? If there was no need for an electrical outlet... So this sparked my interest in taking "natural" mechanical energy and making it into electrical energy....which leads me to my next article of interest Levant Power Corp. (see MIT article http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2009/shock-absorbers-0209.html).

Levant Power Corp - Article #2
Now this article isn't a new article, but still a very cool thing. The main premise behind this MIT created technology is 'Where is energy wasted'? They realized that when a car goes over bumps the energy the suspension springs exert to minimize the feeling of these bumps is going to waste. So they created a new suspension system that routes the liquid (used in suspension systems) through an external circuit.

In general, I find this article interesting because I like the idea of using "natural" energy.
Here is a great forum for energy harvesting.http://www.energyharvesting.net/ I'm sure I'll be using some articles from here.

Piezoelectrics - Article #3
Another interesting aspect of converting mechanical energy to electrical energy is piezoelectrics. Although this is not a new concept, I still find it very interesting.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/house-music-energy-crisis1.htm

Piezoelectrics is where mechanical strain on certain materials (usually crystals, like Quartz) creates a separation of charge across a material. Now if charge is separated, then when the mechanical strain is removed the material will return to its original, neutral state. When the strain is removed, there will be charge movement in the material to return to its neutral state, this movement is what produces current.
http://www.ece.ncsu.edu/erl/microrobotics/actuation/actuation.html

The main idea with Piezoelectrics is that if flooring areas are replaced with piezoelectric systems, then electricity can be generated just from people walking. The idea of applying this to heavily populated/traveled areas is very interesting because it requires no extra effort from people, since all they are doing is walking. Things like dance floors, hospital floors, subways stations would all be ideal choices.