Our goal last week was to convert the boat chassis from an origami structure to a 2D template that was designable on RoCo. The template still needs to be made of one uncut sheet, like origami, so that water can't leak in through edges, but it can be folded from shapes other than a square. The first template was folded from one flat sheet of plastic to create a simple pointed box. However, this was not a floatable boat so we modified the folds for the next iteration.
First template
Boat 7 was the first full boat with a 2D template. We created it by adding necessary folds to create a pointed bow and stern. The paddlewheels were made by cutting hexagons and folding them into a wheel structure. Although the chassis had the desired shape, the boat was dangerously close to the water and also slow. The chassis template was complicated since it had many folds, creating a multi-panelled shape.
Boat 7
To simplify the boat structure, we reduced the number of folds so that the bow was only three panels, and also smoothed the shape of the outline of the template so that each side came to a smooth point, instead of having multiple connected curves as before. We went through multiple iterations before we came to a final design.
Iterations
Boat 9 had our finalized folded chassis as well as improved paddlewheels. The new wheels were constructed from octagons to create eight wings, increasing surface area and thereby speed of the boat. They also were cut and folded differently to create a sturdier structure.
Boat 9
Our goal for the upcoming week is to learn how to use the RoCo and eventually program our template on RoCo so that it is modifiable.