At the forefront of the Maker Movement is the “do-it-yourself” (DIY) and the idea of finding new ways and solutions, dealing creatively with materials and sharing these experiences with others.
Let your ideas run free and design your own robot variants
Be creative and design your individual robot. On the site you will find numerous ideas and suggestions to help you get started. Have fun trying it out.
The Bionics4Education educational concept aims to promote individualisation and project work. To this end, the Bionics Kits can be used to support project-based learning. For example, the Bionics Kits can be used to create individual projects and own extensions using 3D printing technology.
3D Printing
3D printing is a big issue for young people worldwide. That’s why we want to offer an opportunity for young people to deal with this topic in a creative and individual way. Experimenting with different materials should encourage the young people’s joy of experimentation.
Open Source approach
We want to support learners by making the CAD data freely available on the website (Support) and on GitHub for further development. We want to inspire and give impulses to realize own ideas, to become creative and to dare to try things out with simple tools.
Below are a few examples from the maker community for inspiration. We are looking forward to many more project ideas from you….
Bionics Kit - Bionic Fish, Bionic Elephant, Bionic Chameleon
DIY Hand
Alternatively, instead of the silicone cap used on the Bionic Chameleon, users can now recreate a DIY Hand inspired by the human hand. This is attached to the body using cable ties that are connected to the servo motors to create the hand movement. The Bionic Hand is modeled after the human hand. However, it only has four fingers, as only four servo motors were included in the Bionics Kit.
The idea for the DIY Hand came from Dutchy3D in the Netherlands.
www.dutchy3d.com
The 3D printing data can be found under Support
DIY 3-Point-Gripper
As an alternative to the 2-point gripper used for gripping the Bionic Elephant, you now have the option of developing a 3-point gripper yourself. This requires three Fin Ray elements and a base plate from the 3D printer.
The idea came from our developers in the Bionics4Education project team at Festo Didactic SE.
The 3D printing data can be found under Support
Further activities: Sensors
Find out from Mauritz Fethke, a tinkerer and DIY enthusiast, what other possibilities there are for making the Bionic Fish even “smarter” with the help of sensors.
Let yourself be inspired!
Note: The videos are currently only available in German.
Further activities: Coding
A female maker from our network, Laurine Vernizeau, has developed great maker (DIY) project ideas with the Bionic Fish, Bionic Elephant, Bionic Chameleon from the Bionics Kit together with our developers. There are three projects per robot animal. Just have a look at the videos. You can find the code for coding the projects on GitHub
DIY Projects – Fish
Maker Ideas with the Bionics Kit – Bionic Fish
Level 1
A little heart The heart of the fish is represented by a red LED. This LED flashes at the rate of the learner’s heartbeat given by the sensors.
Level 2
Cycle-of-the-day This scenario recreates the fish’s behavior for one day. This behavior depends, on the one hand, on the temperature and, on the other hand, on the luminosity. We define different modes: day/night and cold/hot.
Level 3
Swimming Competition The objective is to make the fish swim as fast as possible. For a period of time, each learner can test different combinations with the different sensors (gestures, color and touch) in order to find the combination that makes the fish move fastest. The learner with the highest speed wins.
Level 1
Adaptability of the trunk The trunk of elephants is used to breathe, to drink, catch fruit, communicate, etc. The movements of the trunk are numerous. The learner can create several behaviors depending on the luminosity and temperature.
Level 2
Temperature The elephant’s trunk is very much used by the animal. For example, the elephant uses its trunk to bring water to its mouth.
Level 3
Colored Fruit Each learner chooses a color of balls. In turn, one student positions his ball in the middle of the clamps and presses the button to close the clamps. A color is chosen at random by the program. If the color of the ball matches the color chosen, then the learner wins. Otherwise, the trunk makes a movement of disgust.
DIY Projects – Elephant
Maker Ideas with the Bionics Kit – Bionic Elephant
DIY Projects – Chameleon
Maker Ideas with the Bionics Kit – Bionic Chameleon
Level 1
Camouflage The chameleon is known for its ability to change color. To escape from predators, it hides in the wild and adapts to the color around it.
Level 2
Environment This scenario reflects the chameleon’s ability to change colors according to its environment. The environment depends on the temperature, luminosity, and the presence of predators (here, it’s the learner).
Level 3
Food Every learner has an object. There is a push button to activate the vacuum of an object. The student puts his object in front of the tongue and presses the button. So, the chameleon vacuums the object. After a delay, either the chameleon rejects the object, or the chameleon keeps the object and the LED green lights. In this case, the learner has won and earns a point.
Bionic Flower
Further activities: Coding
You can also program our Bionic Flower yourself. Therefore, you don’t need any long installation. You can download the Arduino Portable version (Support) with all necessary and pre-installed settings. We also have prepared some basic DIY-project ideas for an easy start with coding our Bionic Flower. You find all instructions here or on GitHub
DIY Projects – Bionic Flower
Maker Ideas with the Bionic Flower
Scenario Bee
Bees are important in the life of flowers. The main role of bees is the pollination of flowers that allows the reproduction of plants. In this project you will recreate the interaction between the bees and the flowers. And more specifically, reproduce the sound of bees (buzz) when they are close to flowers and underline the fact that most bees are diurnal animals (active only during the day).
Download the Step-by-Step instruction Bee
Scenario Bee’s Travel
Bees are important in the life of flowers. Indeed, the main role of bees is the pollination that allows the reproduction of plants. In this project, you will recreate the fact that some bees are attracted to specific flowers. Thus, every year they follow the same path to pollinate these flowers.
Download the Step-by-Step instruction Bee’s Travel
Scenario Carnivorous
Carnivorous plants are unique in their ability to attract, capture and assimilate (in whole or in part) their prey (mostly insects). Carnivorous plant’s traps are defined as “active” if they are mobile and fast. Indeed, when the carnivorous plant detects an insect, it immediately closes and traps the prey. After digestion, the plant reopens while waiting for the next prey.
Download the Step-by-Step instruction Carnivorous
Scenario Day of the flower
Flowers need light and a warm environment (high temperature) to grow. In this project you will recreate the day of a flower. This means that the flower open in the morning and stays open all day. In addition, the degree of opening of the flower will depend on the temperature. Then the flower closes at night again.
Download the Step-by-Step Instruction Day of the flower
Scenario Diversity of the flower
Pollination allows the transportation of pollen from the male reproductive organs to the female reproductive organ, which will then allow the reproduction of plants. This transport takes place either inside the flowers (self-pollination) or by cross-pollination (the pollen of one flower is deposited on the pistils of another flower). In the latter case, the pollination vectors may be biotic (birds, insects…) or abiotic (wind, water,..). Thus, cross-pollination may allow flower varieties to cross, to give rise to new species with a new color of plants for example. In this project, you will recreate the diversity of the flower regarding the flower’s color due to the spreading of the seeds by the wind.
Download the Step-by-Step Instruction Diversity of the flower
Scenario Nutrition of the flower
Flowers need light and essential nutrients to grow. Amongst others, nutrients can be found in the covering soil. In this project we will show a continuous growth of the flower depending of the nutrients that will be imitated by the amount of water we add to the soil (or in this experiment cotton).
Download the Step-by-Step Instruction Nutrition of the flower
Scenario Photosynthesis
Photosynthesis needs light, chlorophyll, Co2 and water. This phenomena allows to create O2 out of CO2 and luminous energy. In this project, you will recreate the effect of photosynthesis.
Download the Step-by-Step instruction Photosynthesis
DIY Bowl
Create your own bowl for the Bionic Flower. As an alternative to the supplied bowl, you can also consider for yourself whether there are other ways to design and construct an individually designed bowl. Let yourself be inspired by our proposal.
The idea came from our developers in the Bionics4Education project team at Festo Didactic SE.
The 3D printing data can be found under Support
Maker Movement
Maker projects
At the forefront of the Maker Movement is the “Do it Yourself (DIY)” and the idea of finding new ways and solutions, dealing creatively with materials and sharing these experiences with others. Bionics4Education takes this approach and combines Maker Education and STEM Education, in that, beyond assembly, learners can individually design and expand the Bionic Flower using, for example, 3D printers, other materials, hardware and software.
Own ideas individually and creatively implemented
If you are interested in sharing your ideas with the Bionics4Education community, please send us an email with your ideas and suggestions. Send an Email to: bionic4education@festo.com