The concept of our project is to use soft robotics actuators without automation or electronics to create a product with advantages over traditional alternatives .In our case, the PneuNets Bending Actuators allow for a greater range of motion, and thus greater gripping ability than a traditional mechanical reacher grabber, like those used by the elderly and disabled.
In the design section, we go over our concepts, prototypes, final design, and any problems with it, and potential improvements we could make. In fabrication, we show the bill of materials, the assembly process, and building our version. finally in testing, we talk about the testing of the design, the data we gained, and how it performs compared to traditional alternatives and earlier prototypes.
We are a three member team of seniors from Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda MD, right outside of Washington DC. We started out with two people, Andrew Gates and Nathan Zimmerberg, who've been friends for years, working together both in and out of our engineering courses, which we've taken every year since 7th grade. Nathan is in charge of building, prototyping, and CAD, and Andrew is helping with designing, researching, and documentation. We now have a Third member, Tycho Gormley, who we have both known and been fairly close with for many years, and is helping with anything needed, but with a focus on prototyping, redesigning, and building.
