Responsive System

This second year project, Responsive System, requires students to design and prototype innovative mechatronic systems that are specific to their environments, experimental, innovative, and develop a unique design solution.

Each system must: Respond in real time to two of the following five environmental factors: temperature, light, sound, the movement/ pressure of the air, moisture ,and respond to the proximity of movement detected within its field of vision.

It should also: Be specific to its given location and its local environment. Be demountable into its constituent parts and materials. Take no more than ten minutes to install on site and not damage its installed location. Use energy, components, and materials efficiently. Be expressive and engaging and visually communicate its responses (through mechanical movement), be reliable and highly refined.

The responses chosen must be fully integrated so that the system can demonstrate multiple reactions at the same time (should the stimuli require it) and that the mechanical and electronic components are combined to achieve an overall system synergy.

Team working, judgement, process, innovation, and communication are integral to the development of a successful solution.

: This system is designed to attach to a window pane adjacent to a building entrance and responds to changes in temperature, light, and movement detected. A gearbox controls three triangular shutters that open and close according to variations in the stimuli detected. The shutter assembly is constructed from sections of material covered rigid board (the material allows the separate board section to hinge), 3D printed nodes, sprung pistons, and a base frame attached to the glass using suction pads. The gearbox allows for a single stepper motor to control three separate mechanical outputs.

: This system is designed to sit on an engineered surface within a workshop and responds to changes in sound, light, and movement detected. An active surface is controlled by a series of under-mounted pulleys engaged and controlled by a clutch mechanism. The surface, manufactured from laser cut MDF (to make it flexible), is designed to bend to differing degrees according to the changes in stimuli detected.

: This system is designed to sit on a raised narrow ledge within a workshop and responds to changes in sound, light, and movement detected. A circular cross-section rod is controlled to rotate, extend, and rotate and extend using a rotating wheel mounted on a bearing. This mechanical solution allows for an efficient use of energy, reliability, and for the number of mechanical outputs to exceed the number of inputs. The control code has been optimise the mechanical control and to allow for ease of adjustment should it be required.