Fabricating Kinetic Objects with 3D Printable Spring-Based Mechanisms for Interactivity

Abstract

Emerging 3D printing technology promises the rapid creation of physical shapes. With increasingly accessible and low-cost consumer-grade 3D printers, end-users can create custom objects with diverse materials (e.g., rigid plastics and elastic resins) and 3D printing processes such as Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) and Stereolithography (SLA). However, 3D-printed objects are typically static with limited or no moving parts. Creating 3D printable objects with kinetic behaviors such as deformation and motion is inherently challenging. For example, designing 3D kinematic models requires expert knowledge of mechanical mechanisms, and assembling movable 3D-printed parts is error-prone. To address these problems and enrich the literature for making movable 3D-printed parts, I introduce a novel design and fabrication approach that uses parametric spring-based mechanisms to augment 3D-printed objects with non-static capabilities, such as deformation and actuation for interactions. In this dissertation, I first investigate how movable 3D-printed objects are made and how prototyping kinetic objects can benefit from 3D printable springs through a large-scale analysis of kinetic creations on Thingiverse. Then, I develop a series of novel design techniques and tools for end-users to design and control 3D printable kinetic objects for interactivity, including physical deformation and haptic feedback, self-propelled motion, and sensing through structural deformation. Finally, I evaluate these techniques and tools using a wide variety of example applications emphasizing different application domains.