Cellular Mechanical Design

Cellular Mechanical Design

Cellular Mechanical design, biomimicry

Summer 2016
Collaboration with the Sensing and Mobility Bioinspired Artifacts Lab (SAMBA)

Skills Developed — research, iterative design, FEA with Abaqus, international collaboration
Materials / Processes — 3D printed plastic

In the SAMBA lab at SISSA, we studied euglenids, which have a unique unicellular locomotive strategy called metaboly. Metaboly involves huge contortions of the cellular body, morphing between spherical and cylindrical shapes, to drive motility. The key to metaboly is the pellicle, which controls these deformations. The pellicle is composed of proteinaceous strips that shear and slide along one another, allowing the body to contort in shape but maintain the same volume.

In an effort to replicate this motility, I reverse engineered and designed macro “pellicle strips”. I modeled, built, and iterated several prototypes, utilizing quick-turn high precision 3D printing tools and Abaqus to perform cursory computational analysis. The main goal of the project was to identify the ideal cross sectional geometry for the strips to achieve longitudinal, lateral, and orthogonal variability. These degrees of freedom allow the strips to contort into a variety of shapes, from conical to cylindrical.

As seen in the images above, I achieved a pellicle structure that allowed group level shape change, primarily from cylindrical to conical forms. Further work is required to study materials with higher elongation or increased compliance for more extreme shape change.