Team:StanfordBrownSpelman/Building The Drone

From 2014.igem.org

Revision as of 16:12, 15 October 2014 by Eliblock (Talk | contribs)

Stanford–Brown–Spelman iGEM 2014 — Amberless Hell Cell

  • 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.


  • Variable thickness elements and experimental fragment attachment methods.

  • Spreading a cellulose sheet out to dry.

  • Mycelium drone chassic, modeled by our team and produced by Ecocative.
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 waving 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 common 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 tough and lightweight. So, we reached out to Evocative Design, a pioneering fungal-mycelium-based biomaterial company, to prototype a mycelium form that could serve as the chassis of our vehicle. Thanks to Evocative, 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


Biological UAV Concept, Exploded View
Pellentesque egestas felis et est venenatis, eget lobortis dui adipiscing. Suspendisse volutpat sem eu ornare tincidunt. Mauris pharetra sed justo vitae sodales. Nulla in sodales tortor, placerat tempor dui.
Designed Parts & Downloads
We succeeded in producing multiple viable chassis designs for mycelium UAV concept prototypes. You can download our basic chassis designs here. If you would like to receive a copy of the designs for our more involved, final UAV concept (pictured above), then please reach out to us! We would love to share our work! In the meantime, download and check out our other models below:
Links & References
Suspendisse volutpat sem eu ornare tincidunt. Mauris pharetra sed justo vitae sodales. Nulla in sodales tortor, placerat tempor dui.
Additional Information
Try to avoid having any additional information here. We're trying to keep our site organized, clean, and compelling!
Built atop Foundation. Content &amp Development © Stanford–Brown–Spelman iGEM 2014.