Andreea began her research residency here at the Lab in March and is using the opportunity to research across the disciplines of biology, robotics and responsive growing in relation to her background in architecture. Her broader area of focus is how to successfully print growing bio matter in gel mediums – and to achieve this she has begun to prototype a hobby robot arm that can be optimised to extrude organics.
Prototyping a modified robot arm
Andreea is working towards creating her own fully open-source, affordable tool kit for a robot arm that extrudes organics, with the hope that it will be more affordable and accessible than current options. This will allow a wider and more diverse audience to engage with robotic fabrication.
To achieve this she is currently using the Fab Lab at Green Lab to study existing robotic systems, design and protoype 3D printing files and laser cut files. By studying the existing Dobot desk arm that we have at the lab she is redesigning the robot frame and firmware code to do the following:
- Incorporate a syringe organics extruder
- Provide stability and accuracy through low cost fabricated PLA parts and lasercut pieces
- Incorporate an Android app-controlled robot functionality
We have documented the process of Andreea’s first iteration of her prototype robot hobby arm to extrude organics on our wiki – where you can follow a step by step guide of the project to date.
You can also follow her progress throughout the residency on her website