- Tell us a bit of yourself.
I am Metodi Netzev, Doctoral Researcher, Engineering and Natural Sciences Faculty, Industrial Soft Robot Grasping, Cognitive Robotics Group.
- What did you do at FabLab this time? What was FabLab’s role in the process?
FabLab provided valuable data regarding 3D printer maintenance and performance, preliminary tested new materials as well as fresh supplies and handling materials. Additionally, the staff are exceedingly helpful with explaining the processes and new tools they have. The purpose of FabLab is finely aligned with global trends in reshoring and they provide the tools to increase productivity while reducing cost for university and personal projects. Additionally, FabLab manufactures artistic prototypes which give inspiration to be manipulated into controllable engineering tools for implementation into projects e.g. providing softness based on discretisation.
- How the items you made is utilized in the research?
The product in the following paper is robot grippers with an incredibly high fatigue life and localised softness based on soft auxetic stacks. They are based on PLA and FormFutura Flexfil filaments which I wouldn’t have known about if there would not been FabLab. The materials lend themselves to design based on computational methods which are perfect for engineering publications. You can find the article here.
- Do you already know what to do next at FabLab?
The following projects will utilise more of the subtractive manufacturing capability of FabLab. Additionally my plan is to include more open source tools and attempt to interface them with the milling machines. The large variety of equipment provided by FabLab gives a competitive advantage in prototyping speed and versatility of our innovation.
- What would you like to tell those who are still considering using FabLab?
To those considering using FabLab; don’t be afraid to go and try things out. You lose all the games you don’t play. If you’re feeling intimidated or out of place, it’s ok to pop in and ask about what you should look into before coming in and do the proper job.