The Mighty Hug Machine

    For our project, we designed a hug machine. We designed the machine so that if someone put an object in front of it, the machine would squeeze or hug it in a matter of a couple of seconds. We were not really inspired by any other projects, but we were inspired by lonely people who did not have hugs. Hugs can help calm people down, and everybody needs a warm embrace after a hard day. We just came up with the idea, along with a couple of other ideas, and after changing our project three times, decided to go with this one.

    We had some problems with the design of the machine. The most prominent challenge we had was figuring out how to get the forearms of the machine to curve inwards in order to squeeze or hug the object or person. We spent a lot of time thinking about this issue until we finally came up with a solution. Our solution was to attach poles to the machine to block the movement of the forearms while the upper arms kept moving away from each other to make the forearms curve inwards into a hugging or squeezing position.

    We used YouTube to research how to animate our hug machine 3D model using Blender. Although it took time and effort, we finally learned to animate using Blender, and to successfully create an animation of what our hug machine would have looked     like.

    Due to the time constraints, we were unable to construct a physical machine. If we had been given more time, we would have done so. We would also have tried to advance the design of the machine so it would also work with smaller objects or people. With our machine the way it is now, any object or person we used would have to be reasonably big.

    We would advise people to focus on the brainstorming, since a good idea is essential to having a good project. While you obviously should not get carried away, do not be afraid to push yourself out of your comfort zone. We would also advise people to get an early start and to do most of the designing at the very beginning.

Our project cost $0 since we did not build it. If we had, it would have probably cost somewhere in the $150-200 range due to the amount of wood necessary to build the body of the machine, large servo motors to move the arms, and padding for the arms to make it more comfortable and less rough.

   

Bibliography

Studios, Thilakanathan, director. Introduction to Basic Animation in Blender. YouTube, YouTube, 25 Aug. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZkdR1L91Ik.

Re Designing the Black Pine Circle School Garden's Watering System By: Maxime C and Kea M

Redesigning the Black Pine Circle School Garden Watering System

Estimated Cost of Project:

1 garden bed: $20

5 garden beds: $30

For the Black Pine Circle Annual Maker Faire, we designed and built a garden watering system. Our project
involved trying to improve the way our BPC school garden was being watered. It started on the basis of realizing
the garden wasn’t always being watered enough. We soon realized that this was because the students and
teachers didn’t have time to do it, and most folks didn’t know how much water each plant needed. In an attempt
to help water the garden correctly and thoroughly, we developed a system targeting each of these problems.                                                                                                

In the beginning, we were thinking of using an automated motorized pump to pump water through tubes to the
plants. With this design, we ran into problems almost as soon as we started. We realized that it would be very
difficult to set up a pump to water the plants, because we didn’t have a reliable source of electricity outside.
Without electricity, we had to make a system that used some sort of water tank that branched out into separate
tubes planted on spots near trees or plants in need of water. Thus, to get around our time and material
constraints, we decided to use a water bottle, a syringe, and a few tubes to water the garden.

First, we screwed a syringe to a water bottle; we used this to create the pressure that would pump the water
out our bottle into the tubes. Then, we tested it’s watering capabilities by placing each tube near a plant. We
started pumping. The pressure kept the water going, and we kept pumping the water, and watering the garden.

Throughout this process, we learned many things. The first is that, for anyone who might try this project,
it is always better to make a thorough model on paper before actually building a physical model. This gives
you the option for error without the risk of breaking a final model while trying to improve it. Another thing
that we learned that really interested both of us was the Siphon Principle of the flow of liquid through tubes.
This principle dictates that liquid can be pulled uphill if the end of the tube is lower than the start, much like this:

Unfortunately, this projected was a prototype, and was scaled down to a much smaller size. In reality, it would
be cool to set up a similar plant-watering system that had a similar, but more durable, metal tank that branched
through tubes to water various plants. Except: the tank would be a lot bigger, the tubing would be longer, and we
would use an automated valve system to minimize human labor. Altogether, we hope this project can have a
meaningful impact on the BPC garden, as well as others.

To Buy Materials:

1. Tubing
2. Syringe

Resources:

1. https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/
2. https://www.achooallergy.com/learning/

Project MagLevation: A Magnetic Levitating Train. By Kate, Oliver Hu, And Ohad.

Brought to you by Oliver Hu, Ohad, and Kate

            Our project was creating a magnetic levitating train. We were inspired by the MagLev, a company that builds magnetic levitating trains, one in Shanghai and one in Japan. We wanted to build this because if this technology is advanced it could reduce greenhouse gases from cars, trains, and other transportation that heavily leans on gas. It’s a good deal if we start to use magnetic levitating technology, because, first; it helps keep the Earth clean and healthy; second, since the Earth’s supply of natural gasoline is dwindling, this will be a good, clean alternative. But it is also has a bad side because it costs $60 million to make a mile of track. Most high speed train tracks cost $7.7 billion for 3,150 miles of track. Our objective was to make a fully functional train that could float, move, and hold things on its own. We realized that this was going to be hard after a week, so we changed our goal to make it float, move, and hold, but with help.

            Over the course of the creation of our magnetic levitating train, we faced many challenges. One of them was that we couldn’t get our train to move. After a lot of trying, and failing, we made our train levitate. But still, it wouldn’t move! We tried placing magnets on the walls to force the train into the middle of the track where there would be less friction and the train would be able to move easier. However, the magnets on the bottom of our train were attracted to the sides of the magnets on the walls, so it just flipped over. Then, we had the idea to use wind power. We made two sails, one out of cloth and one out of plastic and attached it to the train, then put a fan behind the track and turned it on. But that didn’t work either; the train was too heavy and the sail just flapped while the train stayed in place. So then we tried to attach a magnet to the back of the train and push it with another magnet from behind. But that just pushed it off of the track. At that moment, when all hope was lost, when we were considering just not having it move at all, it hit us. Instead of push, we could use pull! We moved the magnet to the front of the train and then pulled it with a magnet. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked.

            We learned that magnetic push isn’t always stronger than magnetic pull. We pulled our train with a magnet using magnetic pull instead of pushing it with repelling magnet. We also learned about new ways to move objects without using fossil fuels. We were brainstorming ideas of how to move our train. We thought of wind power, solar power, magnetic power, and gravity. First we brainstormed, thinking of what to do and how it would work. We eventually decided to move it through the power of magnets. Then we started gathering materials and making a rough draft. When the rough draft was done, we started creating the track and the train. Then we noticed all the problems and found some answers. First we found out that our train was too heavy to keep on the track. Our solution was to make a train out of cardboard instead of making it out of wood. We rebuilt our train and then we were done after a few more tests. Our future steps would be making an engine for the train and making a good way to keep the train on the track. We would want to keep on improving the track to make one of the first hyperloops. A hyperloop is going to be the fastest train going at speeds of around 700 mph. The hyperloop runs on a magnetic levitating track but also is in a vacuum. This makes even less friction and making higher speeds possible. For others doing the same project we would recommend making the lightest train possible because not all magnets can hold too much weight. Also ask others around for magnets because it can save lots of money. We got all of our magnets from Ms.Lockwood and made our project completely cost free. Remember to always get back up after every fail. You will never get anywhere if you stay in the same place.



            Everybody hates traffic. We empathize with our users by finding a problem that people would love a solution to as well a problem for the climate. Our objective was to reduce the amount of cars on the street on a daily basis. We thought that public transportation was a good solution to that, but that too released carbon dioxide. We thought that if we could make a method of public transportation that did not release carbon dioxide, then the problem could potentially be solved. And thus came the idea of the magnetic levitating train. There are two magnetic levitating trains that exist, one in Japan and one in Shanghai, and they are among the fastest trains in the world. Our prototype did not work, when we tested it we realized that we needed walls to hold it in place. So we added walls, and found another thing wrong with it, and then we fixed that, and on and on until we had our final product.



            Our project costed a total of zero dollars. This is because the lower school had done a similar project in the past, so Ms. Lockwood was happy to let us borrow the magnets and other necessary components that we needed. We used a couple of resources in the creation / brainstorming for our Maker Faire project. Here they are:

https://www.energy.gov/articles/how-maglev-works

https://hyperloop-one.com/hyperloop-explained