Brief:

A water bear figurine that moves in a way that is representative of the animal's true motion, utilizing connected parts to orchestrate simultaneous motion.  

Process:

Presented with the challenge of recreating  and modeling an animals motion, I decided to try to represent the motion of an animal so small that its movement almost always go unnoticed. I found that the most compelling motion of the Waterbear came in the distinctive motion of its mouth which moves seemingly in and out of its body, and the juxtaposition of its back legs motion compared to its front. I attempted to capture both of these distinctive aspects. To represent the mouth I modeled a series of concentric and self contained cylinders to mimic the in and out, almost plunger, motion of the Waterbear's mouth. For the legs I reversed the orientation of the back to legs mimicking the orientation in the creature itself. Additionally I worked quite a bit in Rhino to capture the most realistic body shape possible. This ended up being somewhat of a challenge and I worked with several different curve commands in Rhino to refine the shape. Finally I assembled the orthographic creature and connected the three front legs to move in sync, as down by the Waterbear itself. As such, my Waterbear model would move in a convincing and accurate way mimicking the complex and dynamic animal motion.

Our bird in flight is a cardboard model of your average bird. Below the tail a string can be pulled to lift the wings, creating a flapping motion. Our project represents a simple bird made from only cardboard, glue, string, and a single washer. It is a quick and practical model of a bird. For those exact reasons our bird in flight is a cheap and resourceful way to teach basic mechanics in third world countries. For countries where money is tight project based learning can be a struggle. Our model uses materials that are easy to find or purchase. The glue can be replaced with another sticky material such as tape, the washer can be easily substituted with wire. Bird in flight is not just a bird flapping its wings. Its a way to teach basic mechanics such as pulleys, and why they have such a huge effect on our world.

1. The Shark Tale is a cardboard model of a shark, in which the tail is able to move freely and is connected to the jaw, allowing the movement of both simultaneously. 

2. Our project was a cardboard model of a shark whose jaw and tail are connected through a piece of string, allowing the two parts to move simultaneously if one is moved. Initially, my partner and I wanted to create a shark whose tail could move automatically, however, we ran into many problems with this idea, due to our inexperience with robotics. Because of this, we had the idea to connect the tail to the jaw through a piece of string that would run either through or above the body of the shark. We encountered many problems in this project, mainly regarding the issue that it was difficult to connect a tail that could move freely side to side, in addition to creating a light enough jaw that would be pulled when moving the jaw. However, this issue was fixed, in addition to many others, with each iteration of the project, as each iteration of our project would vastly improve our project every time. By the end, the project became a very efficient and clean model of what we wanted. 

The Porcuphant is a hand-powered kinetic creature based on what you would get by crossing Porcupine with an Elephant.  Our hours of iterations come together to make the ultimate Porcupine-Elephant experience.

The inspiration for the Porcuphant came from a problem; a clear lack of affordable, easy to use, versatile combination of Porcupines and Elephants.  The solution was the Porcuphant.  A cardboard, easy-to-make, moving animal.  The Porcuphant is perfect for toddlers, adults, and everyone looking for a fun and versatile toy to burn off some stress with.

The Porcuphant utilizes a unique cog/quill mechanism.  Turning the trunk will cause the quills to be pushed up and down by the continuous cog.  The Porcuphant is made of cardboard, with the quills and trunk made out of plastic, and the cam rod out of wood.

Bats are the only mammals that can truly fly. While researching, we found that the flight of bats, specifically its wing gyration and pattern, was intriguing. Bats are also commonly expressed through one of America's most beloved superheroes, Batman. Even though we love Batman, his reputation made it more essential for us to include a piece him in our project. Our piece includes the sleek Batman emblem and an original design created through Rhinoceros to laser cut.
Through days, hours, minutes, and even seconds of top-notch brainstorming, high-end designing, and elite engineering, we managed to piece together a mechanical hero, batX. After each iteration, we erudite the flaws from our design and put news ideas into planning and crafting. The batX is a creature which flaps its wings upon command symbolising mankind's dominance over nature. The batX is a toy to explicate this principal while attempting to cultivate a love of the very fauna that inhabits the users planet.