Phase 2: Cardboard Prototype

Our prototype lever being made of sticks

Our Cardboard prototype of the base

Cardboard Gear, in comparison to the render, we needed to make changes because a ring in real lif couldn't stand up by itself. We designed a normal gear but with a whole at the top to act like a disjointed cam.

 

 

Phase 2: SolidWorks Model Preview

This solidworks video perfectly shows the motion we are trying to accomplish on the physical model.

Phase 1: Configurations

We created a set of two gears that mimic heartbeat and breathing. The heartbeat gear, pictured in green, uses a round gear with two closely placed half-circle shaped tabs, with the first being taller than the second. As the gear turns, the lever (in yellow) on top is pushed up by the first tab and fall abruptly onto the second tab as the first tab ends. The lever then pushes upward and drops again in a heartbeat pattern. The other gear works in a similar way to mimic the slow rising and falling movements of the chest in breathing. This gear, pictured in red, is a circle with the hole it turns around placed halfway between the edge and the center-point of the circle. This causes the lever resting on it to rise and fall slowly, simulating the movement of breathing. The entire sculpture is surrounded by a rectilinear support frame that has a thin membrane strethed over it. As the gears turn the levers are pushed up against the fabric, mimicking the natural movements of the organs in the body.

Configuration 1
The first of our configurations is exactly what was described above in a square block, with one heart gear and one lung gear with one lever each that move the levers as the gear is turned. This serves as our base configuration.

Configuration 2: The Wave
The second configuration is a long rectangular creature with seven heart gears in a row that are all set up to raise the lever a moment after each other in a wave formation as the crank is turned. It is meant to replicate the way that a pulse looks and how blood moves through veins in a creature.

 

Configuration 3: Heart Noise
The third configuration uses the movement of several lung gears moving two support bars up and down at opposite times. The moving bars each support half of a lever that is hollow and filled with dry rice. When the crank is turned the lever is tipped back and forth length-wise and the rice runs back and forth, creating the sound of breathing.

Phase 1: Configuration Sketches

Initial sketches of our heart beat prototype, with this being our 1st configuration and base model:

 

Sketch of our 2nd configuration: The Wave

Sketches of our 3rd configuration: Heart Noise

 

Phase 1: How a Heart Works?

Inspired by Theo Jansen's Strandbeest, we challenged ourselves in this project to recreate the complex internal movements and functions of a living creature. 

We wanted to literally mimic how animals might breathe, which drove us to explore how the heart and lungs functioned. 

Phase 1: Design Precedents

Analysis of Existing KSs
In developing our own kinetic sculpture and product platform, we looked at several successful sculptures, particularly with regards to how they used key pieces with particular functions to create a product platform that could be translated easily into creative new sculptures.

Strandbeest
Theo Jansen's Strandbeest is a mechanical creature that live and walks on beaches using only the power of wind. We were interested in it's exceedingly simple and elegant use of circular motion in powering it's legs, as well as the translation of the beautiful wave of motion created in it's wind-collecting sail into the movement of it's feet. The leg mechanism was also very interesting to us, as it uses a very simple structure and set of connecting parts to mimic a complex natural movement: walking.
http://www.strandbeest.com/



Wood That Works
The second set of sculptures that inspired us was David C. Roy's Wood That Works collection. What we found most interesting about his work was his use of several very simple mechanisms in all of his work, such as gears, pulleys, and decorative pieces, and his ability to quickly combine these pieces in different ways to create entirely new and unique sculptures that are beautiful every time with minimal effort in their design and construction (he is able to mass-produce the individual parts without fear of not being able to use them on a future product. This is an excellent example of the product platform being applied to kinetic sculptures.
http://www.woodthatworks.com/gallery-sculptures/