DESIGN FOR WELL-BEING
Serenity
Serenity is a VUI in the form of a night stand lamp that helps users achieve better sleep hygiene and improves mental and physical wellness by guiding them through a personalized, stress-reducing night time routine. When the user is not in the same room, Serenity can be accessed through the user’s smartphone. The voice diary feature allows users to reflect on their sleeping habits and identify sources of stress. Prior to going to bed, users can complete a series of mental exercises and guided meditations that help users fall asleep.
BIO-INSPIRED DESIGN
SeTire
SeTire® is a brand of car tires that takes advantage of van der Waals adhesion forces as observed in gecko foot setae to provide a stronger grip for dangerous road conditions (such as wet conditions), without compromising the car’s efficiency. The tread is lined with a lamellae, gecko-inspired synthetic adhesive structures that provide extra traction for slippery surfaces, yet peel off easily as the wheel turns.
Thermobot Swarm
Earthquakes are a common natural disaster that cause destruction and kill over 10,000 people annually. While we have no way of stopping earthquakes, we do have power over how we respond to these disasters.
The robot is designed to aid search and rescue teams in their efforts to find missing people in large piles of rubble after an earthquake has struck. Using the Dynamic Autonomous Sprawled Hexapod (DASH) origami robot and a sensor that is inspired by the infrared detection found in vipers, I helped to design a robot that is capable of quickly scanning through rubble to look for trapped bodies.
The robot possesses an infrared sensory system. Upon detecting infrared radiation, the robot is able to construct a thermal image of the object and detect the source of the radiation. After some preliminary tests for speed and maneuverability, our team came up with a design for a robot with an integrated sensor that gives it similar infrared detection capabilities as pit-bearing snakes. The Thermobot Swarm, is a pod of bioinspired DASH robots that can maneuver through small cracks to locate and get to people quickly and efficiently. Thermobot Swarm has the potential to be a big hero for earthquake victims and save hundreds or even thousands of lives.
WhaleGuard
The WhaleGuard helmet is a bioinspired helmet which provides extra durability and support while being able to recover from collisions. The main premise behind this helmet is that it is reusable—the self-correcting mechanism is able to restore its shape after deformation due to impact, while still maintaining its structural integrity and protective abilities.
Through close study and experimentation, researchers found that the fibrocartilage pads on the temporomandibular joints of the rorqual whales show extremely high flexural rigidity, which means that they require a high amount of force to bend one unit of curvature. The product draws inspiration from the shock absorbing, self-correcting mechanism observed in the jaws of rorqual whales.
