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Team:StanfordBrownSpelman/Building The Drone
From 2014.igem.org
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| + | <li><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/5/57/SBSiGEM2014_Cellulose_Circuit.jpg"></li><h6>Our team collaborated with a silicon valley start up <a href="http://agic.cc" target="_blank">AgiC Inc.</a> to print circuits onto our cellulose-based biomaterials in order to prototype how fully biodegradable circuitry might function on a biological UAV. See our <a href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:StanfordBrownSpelman/Cellulose_Acetate">Biomaterials</a> page for details on the conductivity of this circuitry.</h6><br> | ||
<li><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/c/c5/SBSiGEM2014BTD3.jpg"></li><h6>Variable thickness elements and experimental fragment attachment methods.</h6><br> | <li><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/c/c5/SBSiGEM2014BTD3.jpg"></li><h6>Variable thickness elements and experimental fragment attachment methods.</h6><br> | ||
| - | <li><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/c/c5/SBSiGEM2014BTD8.JPG"></li><h6>Spreading a cellulose sheet out to dry.</h6 | + | <li><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/c/c5/SBSiGEM2014BTD8.JPG"></li><h6>Spreading a cellulose sheet out to dry.</h6> |
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<h5><center>Drone Futures</h5> | <h5><center>Drone Futures</h5> | ||
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| - | Here is a collection of speculative work that stimulated our team to think about synthetic biology, the future, and the role of personal unmanned aerial vehicles or biological devices in an evolving world of DIY craft, government surveillance, and channelled creativity. | + | Here is a collection of drone-related sites and speculative work that stimulated our team to think about synthetic biology, the future, and the role of personal unmanned aerial vehicles or biological devices in an evolving world of DIY craft, government surveillance, and channelled creativity. |
<div class="sub5"><a href="http://www.fabrica.it/projects/drone">● Frabrica — <i>Drone</i>, speculative fictions in the age of the drone</a></div> | <div class="sub5"><a href="http://www.fabrica.it/projects/drone">● Frabrica — <i>Drone</i>, speculative fictions in the age of the drone</a></div> | ||
<div class="sub5"><a href="http://www.dronesurvivalguide.org">● Drone Survival Guide — a poster series highlighting the uneasy relationship between the public and drones</a></div> | <div class="sub5"><a href="http://www.dronesurvivalguide.org">● Drone Survival Guide — a poster series highlighting the uneasy relationship between the public and drones</a></div> | ||
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<div class="sub5"><a href="http://diydrones.com">● DIY Drones — a growing online community of makers committed to building unmanned aircraft</a></div> | <div class="sub5"><a href="http://diydrones.com">● DIY Drones — a growing online community of makers committed to building unmanned aircraft</a></div> | ||
| + | <div class="sub5"><a href="http://www.dezeen.com/2014/04/29/drone-shadows-graphics-james-bridle-designs-of-the-year-2014/">● Drone shadows, a visual reminder of constant surveillance</a></div> | ||
| + | <div class="sub5"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/03/anti-drone-hoodie-adam-harvey-surveillance_n_3007064.html#slide=2295806">● Anti-Drone hoodie</a></div> | ||
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| - | Built atop Foundation. Content & Development © Stanford–Brown–Spelman iGEM 2014. | + | Built atop Foundation. Content & Development © Stanford–Brown–Spelman iGEM 2014. |
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Latest revision as of 03:00, 18 October 2014
Prototyping a Biological UAV
Our team modeled, prototyped, and collaborated with Ecovative Design to grow a mycelium-based chassis for our biological drone. Below you'll find process photos, part designs, and links to open source model files for downloading and additively manufacturing your own biological or bio-inspired unmanned aerial vehicle. Finally, you can see images of the biological, biodegradable UAV that we built and flew!
Harvesting a pure bacterial cellulose sheet.
Experimenting with cellulose material shape.
Layering cellulose to create thicker leather, see here at the back of the hood.
Mycelium drone chassis, modeled and 3D-designed by our team, produced by Ecovative.
Our team collaborated with a silicon valley start up AgiC Inc. to print circuits onto our cellulose-based biomaterials in order to prototype how fully biodegradable circuitry might function on a biological UAV. See our Biomaterials page for details on the conductivity of this circuitry.
Variable thickness elements and experimental fragment attachment methods.
Spreading a cellulose sheet out to dry.
Starting Small, Ending Big
We began by experimenting with producing cellulose in sheets and cellulose acetate non-biologically. Seeing that primarily cellulose materials are extremely strong and tough, but tear easily and becomes soggy when wet, we sought to increase the durability of the cellulose by grinding it into pieces to create a cellulose paste (that became spreadable into sheets like paper made from wood pulp) and stretching and twisting it into ropes to add strength. A few of our material samples follow:
A spiral rope made by weaving together several cellulose sheets and dehydrating them.
A piece of cellulose leather generated by laying multiple sheets of cellulose together in perpendicular orientations.
While experimenting with cellulose-based materials, we also explored traditional starch bioplastics to compare material functionality. Here is an example of a starch bioplastic that we produced synthetically in the lab:
Common starch bioplastic, which is more voluminous but less strong than bacterial cellulose. Starch bioplastics, like bacterial cellulose materials, suffer disintegration when wet.
Realizing that cellulose acetate is tough but thin, our team was in need of a building material that was durable and lightweight. So, we reached out to Ecovative Design, a pioneering fungal-mycelium-based biomaterial company, to prototype a mycelium form that could serve as the chassis of our vehicle. Ecovative shipped us mycelium samples (pictured below), that we skinned in bacterial cellulose.
6" by 6" by 1" sample of Ecovative's lightweight mycelium-based biomaterial.
A piece of fungal mycelium skinned in bacterial cellulose.
Thanks to Ecovative, we were able to construct a prototype biological unmanned aerial vehicle!
But we didn't stop there. Our team was enthusiastic about drone design and so we developed concept UAV designs meant to inspire future scientists and designers to think outside the box about how a future, partially living vehicle might look. Pseudo-natural and pseudo-industrial, our drone design references the traditional biological architecture of birds while embracing industrial additive manufacturability.
All 3D printable files for this concept drone are available in the downloads section. Images of our work follow:
Concept UAV Design
