Week 4 3D Design

This week we brought together all our ideas we had for our eco-friendly form of transport from last week. We wrote all the ideas on the board and took a vote on which were the two best ideas. It was voted on that Josie’s idea of a two seater and Maha’s idea of a children’s seat attachment were the best to work with. The following image shows our voting scheme;

 We needed to come up with a catchy name for our design. We wanted to give the idea of “green” “good for the environment and with less impact”. So after brainstorming this was the names we came up with;

Name: Big toe “For a small footprint” (for the two seater)

            Little toe “For a tiny footprint” (for the attachment)

Once we were settled on the name and the design we had to explore and challenge aspects and ideas for the design as seen in this picture;

Idea 1: Children’s seat attachment “Little Toe”

Exploration:

• Safe
• Comfortable
• Modified trailer attachment
• Toe hitch
• Signage (rear)
• Safety lights
• Maximum capacity
• Cabin lights
• Protective cabins
• Sidecar
• Clip on side
• Modular that becomes 1 when joined
• Extra space in back for either a kid or groceries

Final decision:

• Safe
• Comfortable
• Cabin lights
• Modular that becomes 1 when joined from the back
• Extra space in back for either a kid or groceries

Challenge:

• How can it attach and detach easily?
• Left or right side 

Solutions:

• Lever attachment, which grabs onto safety bar on the back of the “Big Toe”
• Attaching to the back is safer than either side because on side you have dangers of people overtaking and side swiping the children’s attachment or if “Big Toe” swerves there are signs or trees on the other side.

Idea 2: 2 Seater “Big Toe”

Exploration:

• Safe
• Comfortable
• Safety lights
• Maximum capacity
• Cabin lights
• Back designed to allow extra children’s attachment
• Solar panel location
• Windscreen plastic or glass
• Doors or open with safety bars?
• Four wheel or two wheel
• Space in cabin without attachment 

Final decision:

• Safe
• Comfortable seating
• Safety lights on outside
• Maximum capacity of two average adults
• Cabin lights warning of weight capacity, power supply
• Solar panel will be on roof
• Windscreen thick plastic
• No doors
• Two wheeled
• Under feet a little compartment to put bag or personal items

Challenge:

• How will it allow attachment to easily be attached
• Speed it will reach. Will it go on normal roads or foot paths
• What happens if it rains will driver get wet?

Solution:

• Lever attachment, allows “Little Toe” to grab onto back rail
• For small roads and footpaths
• Plastic attachment will be supplied to clip onto frame to prevent water getting inside

Segway has come up with a prototype that demonstrates some of our ideas for our "Big Toe"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph4P_WfsV-g

When watching this clip I really like how they have used the steering wheel as a lever to pull or push the vehicle into motion and bring it to a stop. When pushing the steering shaft forward it brings the vehicle to a stop by the change in balance of the cabin. This prototype i think needs to be changed to allow a space for storage or some degree and needs to consider protection from different weather.

As our practical this week we had to choose a 3D design we have done. I have only done the drawing of a design student’s school bag so that is the design I will be using. I had to analyse it by thinking of two experiments that could improve or change it and consider the pros and cons for each experiment. From that I will have to go through the choosing and refusing strategy the different ideas.

(my drawing of handbag)

Experiment 1:

Change the bag to a backpack instead of a shoulder bag

Pros:

• Will allow more space for supplies
• Could accommodate more pockets/sections

Cons:

• Fabric would have to change to make the bag durable
• Artwork would lose its impact

Experiment 2:

Make the bag out of one piece of material

Pros:

• Be durable
• Might appeal to a broader range of students

Cons:

• Not as exciting to look at
• Material might not come in large range of colours

Choosing & Refusing

Could change the shape of the bag but not to a backpack, maybe one shoulder wrap around

Instead of doing the whole bag in one fabric you could use different pieces of fabric to still keep the artwork but to give it durability use materials that are stronger or even have bag made our of one material but have the odd fabrics sewed on top.




"That's all I have to say about that. " Forest Gump...