base unit design | unit introduction
the unit |
The unit, the system’s main building block, is based on a simple rotational movement of the faces of an octahedron around the vertices of its neighbor. Within this transformation, the unit starts from octahedral state, expands to an icosahedron, cuboctahedron, back to icosahedron an and octahedron again - expanding up to 1.5x in size, and changing both orientation and location of all its faces. An analysis of the movment shows a series of different relational changes within one unit, from mere linear translating of opposing faces to relocation and rotation of diagonal faces. Changes that affect the units potential search space to aggregate, allowing new connections, resp. a local transformation reconfiguring other connected structures. In order to actuatie the unit and enable it to act autonomous, different approaches from introduction of flexible unit to unit interfaces to internal mechanics and controls were explored. The main unit has several design features embedded that enable it to act autonomously and perform in a plug’n’play manner, The external shell follows two main function of Unit-to-Unit Interface: Construction & Communication between units, Construction is concerned with Connecting & Disconnecting and Interlocking between a Unit’s faces, Communication with Body-Plan Awareness and sequencing. A single unit can be fabricated with simple diy components all parts except the electronics can be printed within 12 and assembled within 2 hours with any desktop 3d printer..
noMad - behavioural fabrication | page 154