Inflating or deflating objects (inflatables) is something that is being used more and more with the growing demand for products which are easier to store. Examples of existing products are air mattresses, beach balls, and airbags.
With the potential of inflatables being more recognized, the design studio ‘Fillip studios’, based in Arnhem, created a practical course surrounding this technique. In this course, that runs at Design Academy Eindhoven (DAE), engineering and design students work in close collaboration. The end goal is to create smart inflatable structures, such as furniture, lamps, wall decoration, sound panels, etc.
Project description
In our Minor BeCreative project we investigated the question: ‘What is needed to create a programmable air pump that can control the airflow and that can be used on the wide scale of prototypes that will be designed?’
After a lot of brainstorming and experimenting, we came up with a four ball-valve system to control the air flow to or from the inflatable structures; mostly prototypes designed at Design Academy Eindhoven (DAE).
Project results
During our BeCreative Minor project, we created our own flow meters and pressure sensors (instead of buying them off the shelve) because we wanted to know exactly how they work. Then we applied a microcontroller to control the valves based on user settings (requirements) and sensor outputs. All the parts were integrated into one portable box, enabling future research in the field of programmable inflatable structures.
Video
Acknowledgement
We would like to thank Fillip Studios and Design Academy Eindhoven for being partners of Fontys Minor BeCreative.