Balloon Actuator
We are grateful for the generous support of Haoran Xie, who created the original tutorial with his co-authors Takuma Torii, Aoshi Chiba, and Qiukai Qi from the Human Augmentation Group, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST).
The academic paper published by the authors is open access: Haoran Xie, Takuma Torii, Aoshi Chiba, and Qiukai Qi. 2021. XBalloon: Animated Objects with Balloon Plastic Actuator. In 12th Augmented Human International Conference (AH2021). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 5, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1145/3460881.3460933
Copyrights of the contents on this page belong to the authors the paper: Haoran Xie, Takuma Torii, Aoshi Chiba, and Qiukai Qi, Human Augmentation Group @ JAIST
Overview
The thing made of vinyl and balloons that moves.
💡This page contains all the information you need to get started. If you are interested in more in-depth/technical details, you may check out this video and an academic paper.
Materials and Tools You Need
Lists:
Sewing machine
polyethylene film
twist balloons
plastic tube
zip ties
syringe
marker
paper
Fabrication Steps:
Step 1 - Draw the pattern on the paper.
💡Make the entrance of the balloon about the width of one finger.
Step 2 - Trace and transfer the pattern onto the vinyl.
Step 3 - Stitch along the traced lines using a sewing machine.
💡Do not sew the entrance of the balloon.
Step 4 - Cut out the vinyl.
Step 5 - Insert the balloon into the vinyl.
Step 6: Insert the tube and tightly secure the opening.
💡When tying, include the "tube-balloon-vinyl" in the wrap.
Design Principle
Use the geometry of the plastic part to control the bending performance.
Design Examples
