aeroMorph - Heat-sealing Inflatable Shape-change Materials for Interaction Design

This paper presents a design, simulation, and fabrication pipeline for making transforming inflatables with various materials. We introduce a bending mechanism that creates multiple, programmable shape-changing behaviors with inextensible materials, including paper, plastics and fabrics. We developed a software tool that generates these bending mechanism for a given geometry, simulates its transformation, and exports the compound geometry as digital fabrication files. We show a range of fabrication methods, from manual sealing, to heat pressing with custom stencils and a custom heat-sealing head that can be mounted on usual 3-axis CNC machines to precisely fabricate the designed transforming material. Finally, we present three applications to show how this technology could be used for designing interactive wearables, toys, and furniture.

[1]  Yasuo Kuniyoshi,et al.  Printable pneumatic artificial muscles for anatomy-based humanoid robots , 2015, 2015 IEEE-RAS 15th International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids).

[2]  G. Whitesides,et al.  Pneumatic Networks for Soft Robotics that Actuate Rapidly , 2014 .

[3]  Wojciech Matusik,et al.  Computational design of mechanical characters , 2013, ACM Trans. Graph..

[4]  Takeo Igarashi,et al.  Plushie: an interactive design system for plush toys , 2007, SIGGRAPH 2007.

[5]  Takeo Igarashi,et al.  Sensitive couture for interactive garment modeling and editing , 2011, SIGGRAPH 2011.

[6]  Ramesh Raskar,et al.  Active Printed Materials for Complex Self-Evolving Deformations , 2014, Scientific Reports.

[7]  Baining Guo,et al.  Motion-guided mechanical toy modeling , 2012, ACM Trans. Graph..

[8]  Markus H. Gross,et al.  Computational design of actuated deformable characters , 2013, ACM Trans. Graph..

[9]  Byoungkwon An,et al.  Folding Angle Regulation by Curved Crease Design for Self-Assembling Origami Propellers , 2015 .

[10]  Jonathan Richard Shewchuk,et al.  Robust adaptive floating-point geometric predicates , 1996, SCG '96.

[11]  Filip Ilievski,et al.  Multigait soft robot , 2011, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[12]  Hiroshi Ishii,et al.  PneUI: pneumatically actuated soft composite materials for shape changing interfaces , 2013, UIST.

[13]  Masahiko Inami,et al.  POPAPY: Instant Paper Craft Made Up in a Microwave Oven , 2012, Advances in Computer Entertainment.

[14]  Hiroshi Ishii,et al.  Topobo: a constructive assembly system with kinetic memory , 2004, CHI.

[15]  Eitan Grinspun,et al.  Designing inflatable structures , 2014, ACM Trans. Graph..

[16]  Olivier Bau,et al.  BubbleWrap: a textile-based electromagnetic haptic display , 2009, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[17]  Katsu Yamane,et al.  3D printed soft skin for safe human-robot interaction , 2015, 2015 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS).

[18]  Takeo Igarashi,et al.  Plushie: an interactive design system for plush toys , 2007, ACM Trans. Graph..

[19]  Chris Harrison,et al.  3D Printing Pneumatic Device Controls with Variable Activation Force Capabilities , 2015, CHI.

[20]  H Tanaka,et al.  Programmable matter by folding , 2010, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[21]  Philippa Mothersill,et al.  Awakened apparel: embedded soft actuators for expressive fashion and functional garments , 2014, TEI '14.

[22]  Xu Sun,et al.  Sticky Actuator: Free-Form Planar Actuators for Animated Objects , 2015, TEI.

[23]  Tim Weyrich,et al.  Computational Fabrication and Display of Material Appearance , 2013, Eurographics.

[24]  Pattie Maes,et al.  Shutters: a permeable surface for environmental control and communication , 2009, TEI.

[25]  Hiroshi Ishii,et al.  jamSheets: thin interfaces with tunable stiffness enabled by layer jamming , 2014, TEI '14.