Design And Fabrication

Design Fabrication and Testing

Version 1 

Silicone 00-50 + 3D printed molds
Designed for positive air pressure (inflation) 

I started off my design process by working with silicone, molding silicone structures with complex inner air channels and chambers. As you can see in the supporting gif animations, the result was far from satisfactory.

I encountered the following issues:

1) Did not produce the desired result.
2) The fabrication process was very labor intensive and messy.
3) The results weren't exactly repeatable.
4) Lacked structural stability.
5) Vulnerable to cuts and puncture.

Version 2 

Silicone 00-30 + thickener brushed on a piece of upholstery foam
Designed for negative air pressure (deflation)

For the second iteration, I decided to experiment with an inner core made of off-the-shelf upholstery foam and brushed thick silicone on top.  This time I wanted to work with deflation as it is more organic and safer to control as opposed to inflation. Unfortunately, I yet again faced all the issues I encountered with the previous design. While user testing the idea, I did receive very interesting comments from people!

Version 3

3D printed origami? 

I needed a radically new approach and I was thinking of ways to get rid of silicone altogether. 
I finally thought of combining 3D printing and origami. The simple idea of 3D printing simple origami mechanisms in a flexible TPU filament produced very reliable soft actuators.

02 - Fabrication

For Details on the materials used, see the Bill of Materials.