Output details

Digital fabrication of smart structures and mechanisms: Creative applications in art and design

This international published conference paper co-authored (with David McGoran from the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, UWE) was delivered at NIP27: the 27th International Conference on Digital Printing Technologies and Digital Fabrication 2011 in Minneapolis (2 - 6 October 2011).

The paper discusses the results of an interdisciplinary research project partly funded by an Academic Fellowship from Research Councils UK (RCUK) investigating how smart material technologies, together with 3D printing, might be exploited creatively within art and design applications. Through the design, prototyping and testing of a tentacle-like structure, the paper describes how, for the first time, soft 3D printing materials and shape memory alloy ‘artificial muscles’ were combined to enable the fabrication of novel active structures displaying life-like movement. These structures and mechanisms incorporated shape memory alloy (SMA) micro-actuators, enabling them to exhibit life-like movement when stimulated by electric current. The design, fabrication and testing of a tentacle-like interactive smart puppet that can be controlled using a purpose-built, sensor based wand is also described, demonstrating a possible creative arts application. The research as a whole has novel implications for the fields of interactive and robotic art and design, soft robotics and physical computing.

The paper was published in the Proceedings of the Society for Imaging Science and Technology Conference: Digital Fabrication 2011. The project has been cited in several reviews including E&T Magazine (vol. 6, no. 3); by the Smart Materials Knowledge Transfer Network; on the website of Develop3D magazine (4 September 2012). Based on this research, Walters became co-investigator in a major EPSRC-funded project, ‘Bioinspired Control of Electro-Active Polymers for Next Generation Soft Robots (led by University of Sheffield in collaboration with UWE, Bristol University and Bristol Robotics Laboratory). Walters contributed to a project investigating the design of minimally invasive surgical instruments with researchers at Bristol Robotics Laboratory.