Creating prototypes of large constructs incorporating electronics, such as a chair that can track an individual’s seating posture, is often a tedious and inefficient undertaking.
One might have to produce several iterations of the chair design through 3D printing and laser cutting, leading to substantial waste, before piecing together the frame, affixing sensors and other delicate electronics onto it, and then connecting it to form a functional unit.
If the prototype does not succeed, the creator will almost certainly have to discard it and return to the conceptual phase.
Researchers at MIT have devised a superior approach for progressively designing robust and sizeable interactive structures. They have established a rapid development platform that employs reconfigurable building units with built-in electronics, which can be combined into intricate, operational devices. Instead of embedding electronics within a structure, the electronics themselves become the form.
These lightweight three-dimensional lattice units, referred to as voxels, possess significant strength and rigidity, coupled with integrated sensory, responsive, and processing functionalities that empower individuals lacking mechanical or electrical engineering knowledge to quickly create interactive electronic devices.
The voxels, which can be assembled, taken apart, and rearranged almost without limit into diverse shapes, cost approximately 50 cents each.
The prototyping platform, known as VIK (Voxel Invention Kit), features an intuitive design tool that facilitates complete prototyping, enabling users to simulate the structure’s reaction to mechanical stresses and refine the design as required.
“This initiative focuses on broadening access to functional interactive devices. With VIK, there’s no need for 3D printing or laser cutting. If you merely possess the voxel faces, you can fabricate these interactive structures wherever you desire,” asserts Jack Forman, a graduate student at MIT specializing in media arts and sciences and a member of the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA) and the MIT Media Lab, as well as co-lead author of a publication on VIK.
Forman is joined on the publication by co-lead author and fellow graduate student Miana Smith; graduate student Amira Abdel-Rahman; and senior author Neil Gershenfeld, a professor at MIT and director of the CBA. Their research will be showcased at the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
Functional building units
VIK builds upon years of advancements in the CBA focused on creating discrete, modular building components known as voxels. One voxel, formed as an aluminum cuboctahedra lattice (comprising eight triangular faces and six square faces), is robust enough to bear 228 kilograms, roughly equivalent to the weight of an upright piano.
Instead of being produced through 3D printing, milling, or laser cutting, voxels are combined into large-scale, strong, robust constructions like components for airplanes or wind turbines that can adapt to their surroundings.
The CBA team integrated voxels with other research in their laboratory centered on intertwined electrical components, resulting in voxels equipped with structural electronics. The assembly of these functional voxels creates structures capable of transmitting data and power as well as mechanical forces, circumventing the necessity for wires.
These electromechanical building units were utilized to develop VIK.
“It was an intriguing challenge to consider how to adapt much of our previous research, which has focused on achieving stringent engineering benchmarks, into a user-friendly system that is logical, enjoyable, and easy for people to engage with,” notes Smith.
For example, they enlarged the voxel design so the lattice structures could be more manageable for human hands to assemble and disassemble. Additionally, they incorporated aluminum cross-bracing into the units to enhance their strength and stability.
Moreover, VIK voxels feature a reversible, snap-fit mechanism that allows users to effortlessly assemble them without the need for extra tools, contrasting with some former voxel designs that employed rivets for fastening.
“We constructed the voxel faces to permit only the correct connections. This guarantees that, when working with voxels, you will create the correct wiring harness. Upon completing your device, you can simply connect it, and it will function,” explains Smith.
Wiring harnesses can substantially increase expenses for functional systems and are often a potential point of failure.
An accessible prototyping platform
To assist users with limited engineering skills in developing a wide variety of interactive devices, the team devised an easy-to-use interface to simulate 3D voxel structures.
The interface includes a Finite Element Analysis (FEA) simulation model allowing users to visualize a structure and simulate the forces and mechanical loads that will act on it. It highlights potential failure points through color coding within an animation of the user’s creation.
“We essentially developed a ‘Minecraft’ for voxel applications. You don’t need extensive knowledge in civil engineering or truss analysis to ensure the structure you’re designing is secure. Anyone can create something with VIK and trust in its safety,” states Forman.
Users are also able to seamlessly integrate off-the-shelf modules, such as speakers, sensors, or actuators, into their creation. VIK prioritizes adaptability, allowing creators to utilize the microcontrollers they are familiar with.
“The next advancement in electronics will unfold in three-dimensional spaces, and the Voxel Invention Kit (VIK) serves as the foundation that will allow users, designers, and innovators to visualize and integrate electronics directly into structures,” remarks Victor Zaderej, the manager of advanced electronics packaging technology at Molex, a provider of electronic, electrical, and fiber optic connectivity systems. “Consider VIK as a combination of a LEGO building set and an electronics breadboard. When inventive engineers and designers begin to explore possible applications, the possibilities and unique products that will emerge will be boundless.”
Utilizing the design tool for feedback, a maker can quickly alter the configuration of voxels to refine a prototype or dismantle the structure to create something new. If the user ultimately decides to dispose of the device, the aluminum voxels are entirely recyclable.
This capacity for reconfiguration and recyclability, along with the voxels’ high strength, rigidity, lightweight nature, and integrated electronics, may render VIK particularly well-suited for scenarios like theatrical stage design, where producers aim to support performers safely with customizable set pieces that may only be needed temporarily.
Furthermore, by enabling the swift prototyping of large, intricate structures, VIK could have future uses in domains such as space fabrication or in the creation of smart buildings and intelligent infrastructure for eco-friendly urban development.
However, for the researchers, perhaps the most crucial next phase will be to release VIK into the public domain to observe the innovations users will create.
“These voxels are presently so easily accessible that individuals can incorporate them into their everyday lives. It will be thrilling to see what they can achieve and produce with VIK,” adds Forman.