Umbrella Skirt

Objectives

   We aimed to create a skirt that would rise in height and become wider when a button on it is pressed. This skirt would allow the user to change its style according to comfort, as a wider skirt could feel less warm to wear in a hot climate. However, creating the full skirt was out of our scope so we decided to create a prototype of half of the skirt and the mechanism that was used to open it. This allowed us to focus on the functionality of the mechanism instead of worrying about making the full form and making a skirt that looked aesthetically wearable.  

Implementation

We based the structure of our skirt off an umbrella, which we had actually disassembled to help make our prototype. We did not want the transition between the opened and closed states of the skirt to be too sudden, so we modified the umbrella to open and close more slowly so that there would be states in between these two phases that the user could pause at to keep the skirt at a custom height and width. However, the skirt would be noticeably wider when it was open. We also programmed two buttons to control the mechanism--one dictating the direction that the skirt was moving in, and another to pause the skirt. These buttons would let the user have better control over the skirt and adjust its length and width according to their personal preferences. The mechanism was controlled by two weights that were raised on two pulleys powered by servos and were connected to the edges of the skirt. These two weights would drop to fold the skirt up, and rise to push it outward using a spring mechanism.

Outcomes

 The code we produced worked perfectly and our mechanism performed how we expected it to. The skirt could open widely and there was a clear difference between the open and closed states. However, we could have made some minor adjustments to fine-tune the implementation of our skirt. While our pulley device could successfully open the skirt to a distinct width, it could not close up completely because the springs that pushed the mechanism open would not restore without bending. The umbrella mechanism was a good idea to cause this skirt to behave the way it did.  Additionally, having a longer skirt would allow us to show how the length of the skirt could change when the mechanism pushes it open, and to allow a longer period for someone to pause the skirt as it expanded. It would have been better to find a way to incorporate the circuitry into the skirt itself instead of having the user stand near the breadboard and push the buttons on it rather than on the skirt.

Photo Documentation

The part of the umbrella that pushed the skirt open and was spring-powered.

The buttons that caused the servos to spin the pulleys and pull the weights up.

The mechanism that opened the skirt. The two weights attached to the umbrella mechanisms opened and closed the skirt as they moved up and down the track. The weights are attached to two servos that would wind them up or release them. The springs attached to the umbrella mechanisms would ideally restore the skirt as it closed up, but they were better at pushing the skirt out.

An early concept of the skirt in which we decided that it would expand at the sides rather than all around.

More conceptual sketches of the skirt, figuring out where the motors would go and providing early ideas for how it would open and what its sewing pattern would look like.

Video Documentation

https://youtu.be/dMd0xITmCSk  

Technical Documentation

The Arduino code for the button is in motorbutton.zip. It's my (Victoria's) first Arduino program I made for a project and I'm proud of the way it turned out.