George Geo

As a part of the project of the DSL 732, teams were created. Ishnishan Singh and I joined to create something that was of common interest to us. The common grounds we covered were in relation with music and furniture design. Our initial idea was to create music blocks that produce a particular frequency when placed on a grid and change according to the position. Since this project was missing out on a mechanical system, we decided to search for projects that were more dynamic and had a kinematic nature. This is when we came across the IRIS Mechanism. Further research led us to the Kinematic clock by the design studio Animaro. And we set a few ideas that we would like to see in our design proposal listed below:

• The design had to be interactive in terms of its movement.
• It needs to have folding parts similar to origami.
• It should have a compact and simple design.

Mechanical Principle and Features

The iris mechanism is an assembly of flaps to adjust the aperture. Creating variations in the shape and number of flaps, various patterns and openings can be designed. The various patterns can be made by creating 2D parametric models on Solidworks. Once the pattern is finalised, the rig has accomodate a few gears to rotate the frame on which the flaps for the aperture are fixed on. A stepper motor with a gear has to be linked to the gears on the frame to control the aperture based on the inputs of the ultra-sonic sensor. And represented below, as the person comes closer to the lamp the aperture reduces causing the opening to widen and let more light shine out.

Project Schedule

Our priority is to test the working of every individual subsystems of the lamp. To keep a track of the progress and inter-dependent tasks, we will be using Gantt Charts provided by TeamGantt. The main tasks include the following:

• Creating a parametric 2D representation of the Iris Mechanism
• Create a prototype model of the mechanism using lazer cutting for part creation
• Gear design of the frame and pinion design to mount on the stepper motor
• Finding the right lighting type to get the desired effect
• Stepper motor programing
• Using the ultra-sonic sensor's input to program the stepper motor
• Designing for assembly for the final product

Materials and Components needed

Icarus Lamp concept video

Watch with headphones for a better experience

Song credits: Tick Tock by Tom Misch