Jiaolyulu

Soft Robotic class

I have taken the class called “soft robotics” taught by Kari Love and found that doing it at home is relaxing to me. That class is really great and funny. I am just sharing some skills I acquired and shows some of my exploration.
Doing Soft Robotics at home is easy and cheap. Below is a small tutorial of how to play with mylar to make inflatable balloons.

Material and cost:

total cost: $27-$47

Material	Where to buy	Price	Does ITP have it?
mylar rolls	amazon link	$28.99	ITP has a lot at shop near the shop desk
alternative to mylar rolls	amazon link	$8.99	ITP don’t have it
iron	amazon link	$18.65	ITP has it at a blue box in soft lab
cutter	I guess you have them at home
staw	I guess you have them at home

Mylar rolls is a metallized PET material that is often used for sealing and packaging. It is often used for making balloons due to its good performance in air tightness.

First trial

The material we are using is a 2 sided material. One side of it is highly reflective and the other side is matt. The reflective side is made of metal and can withstand high temperature. The matt side is easy to melt when heated with iron. So when we want to seal the film, we need to attach the matt surface to the matt surface. When we put iron onto it, the 2 sheet would be sticked together.

Let’s make the first trial with a simple square. Make sure that the reflective side is outside.

I marked the shape with my lipstick. You can also mark it with mark pens. Below is where I insert the straw into. You should leave a channel for blowing air into it.

Turn on the iron. It might take few minutes for the iron to reach to an appropriate temperature. Seal the edge with the iron.

This is what it looks like when finished. Insert the straw into it.

Blow air into it. Now our first trial is done!

Other trials

A self bending balloon

MIT project “aeroMorph”
Actually I found this project that is carried out by MIT that is studying structure and inflatables. I try to do a structure of a spiral shape balloon with mylar.