Weekly Assignment 5

Identify a transformation movement from your wearable. After that, conceptualize the movement to translate it into a mechanism that can be activated by a motor. Do more with less!

This week you will create at least 2 more different mechanisms that can be controlled with a motor. Try to find something that you find interesting and maybe useful for your wearable. Use simple materials to prototype, so you can make a simple version to understand completely how the mechanism work and later you can propose an improved mechanism according to what your project needs. If you really don’t know what to do, just replicate a mechanism. Bellow you can find some ideas.

Post to your blog all the different mechanisms you created, including the one in class, controlled by an actuator (motor). Document the movements and reflect on your learning experience and the potential for this mechanism. What kind of kinetic reaction you would like to have? How could it be triggered?

Mechanism 1: Transformation Movement from My Wearable

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This mechanism is a modification on my Project 1 hedgehog wearable. Originally, I used five servos to control the spines. This time, I connected the tips of all the spines with a single thread and attached one servo to the position of the first spine, allowing one servo to control the movement of all the spines. The kinetic movement I wanted to achieve is for them to stand upright. This improvement reduces the number of servos used and helped me learn the mechanism of string control.

Mechanism 2: Servo & Butterfly

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This mechanism was inspired by a butterfly structure I found on Pinterest. The original design uses a handle to do manual rotation, making the butterfly move up and down as if fluttering its wings. I added a servo motor to replace the manual rotation. Although it cannot perform a full rotation like the original, it can still replicate the butterfly’s wing-fluttering and movement effect. This works because there is a central wire that moves vertically, while two fixed wires are attached to the butterfly’s wings. When the servo moves, it drives the central wire, thereby triggering the motion.

Mechanism 3: DC Motor & Rotating Stick

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This idea was inspired by a toy I used to play with. The ribbons on the top part were fixed, while the bottom part could move. When you spun the stick, the ribbons would create a beautiful motion. I originally wanted to replace the manual trigger with a DC motor to drive the movement. However, due to the low voltage, the DC motor rotated too slowly and couldn’t reproduce the original motion path. The video on the right shows how it was supposed to move. But I still believe this mechanism is workable if the DC motor can rotate faster.

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