Robot shell design

This is a short project that me and Fanny Bertilsson, a college at the ÅF Product Design Department, did in collaboration with the so called "Embedded" department at ÅF (engineers who work mostly with the technique inside products). They had made a small robot that came 2nd in the Swedish robot championships this year (2015), in the Sumo class and since it was going to be exhibited in different fairs during the autumn to promote ÅF they asked us if we could develop and produce a shell for the, at the time, shell less robot (The 3D model that can be seen on the "Sketching" image shows how the robot looked before the project). The Sumo class means that the robot is put in a small arena together with another robot and whichever machine that pushes the other one out of the ring wins. Both robots are completely autonomous and makes all the decisions without human interference. 

So we spent just a couple of days on the project and made a moodboard, some form sketching and built the design in CAD to be able to print the model in my 3D printer that I bought for my thesis project (a XYZprinting, da Vinci 1.0A). The design is inspired by bugs because they feel robust with their hard shells and sit firmly on the ground, just like the robot needs to do to be able to push out it's opponent from the ring.

Once 3D printed the shell was put on the robot, which had been programmed to be controlled by hand gestures, before it was shown at a fair for unemployed engineers, hosted by Ny Teknik, as can be seen on the fourth image. The small thing on the table is an optical hand gesture censor that is connected to the computer via USB, which in turn transmits the signals to the robot wirelessly. It was very appreciated and it felt good to show that ÅF is not only an engineering company, but also does design. ÅF is one of the biggest actors on the design market in Gothenburg, but this is not so well known get because the design department has only existed for some years and is a such small part of the big, engineer based consultancy bureau that ÅF is.

Fair at Ny Teknik, Gothenburg

A new version of the 3D Printed shell made after the fair in ÅFs new Form 2 printer. Print time around 6 hours.

Print Details

The ABT becomes Spark Awards Winner!!

It's with great joy that I can announce that The Autonomous Baggage Train, which is the concept that my thesis project from my BA in Industrial Design, from Umeå Institute of Design resulted in, has won the highest award "Winner Spark!" in the international design competition Spark Awards!

Please take a look at my short presentation of the project on Spark Awards' homepage:
http://goo.gl/BVgPT1

Dude on a one wheeler sketch

Sketching a quick sketch of a dude riding a one wheeler to show a friend what sort of one wheeler I had seen the other day in Gothenburg. The intention for the sketch was first to be purely communicative, but since I made it quite fast it got a nice touch to it, so I kept working on it and added some shadows which is all very quickly done, but fills it's purpose. I'm starting to realize that really most of the times it turns out better if you work quicker.. The point is not to get a perfect sketch in the sense that every line is perfectly aligned to the next, but to communicate a feeling and a message to the viewer. Then, after you get the proportions more or less right by sketching the whole form, or motive, really quick and messy, then you can wither make a new layer and trace the first sketch, tone it down, or just add some descriptive stronger lines that defines some more important details.

Equipment: Phothops CC 2014

Time: 15 min sketch, 15 min shadowing

Internship at ÅF (former Ångpanneföreningen)

I have recently started a 6 month internship at ÅF (Ångpanneföreningen), a big technique consultancy bureau in Sweden, as an industrial designer and since much of what I do is confidential I will mostly upload some sketches or more conceptual projects that I do for fun in between some work to keep improving my sketching skills. Here is an image of ÅF's building, where I'm sitting on the 3rd floor. It's quite a contrast compared to school, but still I get to do pretty much the same thing, which is a great relief for me, since I was afraid it would be another world than what I'm used to. My closest bosses and some colleagues have also studied either their BA or their MA at Umeå Institute of Design, so it feels like they understand me very well and know more or less what to expect to me. That means that I get to do a lot of exciting real jobs toward real customers straight away, but still they understand that I'm quite green and maybe need some more time or some tutoring through some of the projects. All in all I think it's really exciting to be here and because of the very versatile work that I get to do I think that this is the perfect step for me to take out into the proffessional life now that I've finished my BA in Umeå. Still there is some road left to go before I can call myself a 100% real professional designer, since I'm still only an intern.. But hopefully it won't take too long before I can get a real employment.