Stephanie Tomasetta2013 portfolio

AudiEVOLVE

OUR VISIONTo provide the driver with a system that increases mobility within the cabin space and effortlessly transition between modes and activities in autonomous vehicles.

PROJECT BACKGROUNDAutonomous vehicles (AVs) will become relatively common by the year 2035 and Audi envisions car design will focus not only on the driving experience, but also the riding experience. Important areas in designing cabin spaces for AVs include how people will interact with the cabin space of an AV to perform many activities including, but not limited to driving. It will become necessary to create a multi-functional cabin space that allows the user to seamlessly transition between the increasing number of activities they would perform in an AV.

This project was produced for a year long master’s design methodology depth course. My team was partnered with students from Aalto University and Audi through the Electronic Research Lab (ERL). These pages show our final solution, which was reached through many prototypes in this design space.

The processes used to create this prototype were lasercutting, milling, waterjet cutting, acrylic bending, fiberglass, woodworking, and 3d printing.

The Anticipatory Chair. The centered driver seat gives the driver maximum in-car mobility. The highly sensitive chair sensors read the driver’s needs and intelligently sense different body movements. The chair can respond with a 180-degree rotation or a recline adjustment. With a slight twist of the upper body, the chair will begin to rotate. With a push on the seat back, the chair reclines. The system also integrates a “foot actuator” that initiates backward and forward movement based on the driver’s force applied with their feet.

PROCESS:

4Arm Crutches This project was my senior Product Design Capstone project. My partner and I wanted to focus on making it easier to do everyday things like give a hug, carry a grocery bag, or open a door while using crutches. Our focus was on long term crutch users, mainly leg amputees. The design features a cuff that includes hooks for carrying bags and magnets for the crutches to attach together, and silicone slip-on hand grips.

PROCESS:

The crutch cuffs were 3D printed, while the grips where made from a CNC milled mold that we then filled with silicone & cured.

Chevron Board This cutting board is made out of maple and walnut wood. These fairly common woods were chosen in order to highlight this angular pattern.

PROCESS: It was made by chiseling the walnut end pieces in order to fit the chevron striped center section. The entire board was then hand planed, scraped, and sanded. It was also finished with food safe mineral oil.

This pop-up card was designed for a formgiv-ing class. My focus was to design a light for hospital patients that would bring some warmth and happiness to dreary and depressing hospital rooms. LightWell is a fun twist on the standard get well card. Because patients stay only temporarily, the light I designed had to be something that could be easily brought into the hospital and would not get in the way of necessary hospital machines.

PROCESS:The pattern for the card was cut using a laser cutter. An LED and battery are hidden inside the card.

Pull tab to pop-up the crystal structure and illuminate it.

Polycarbonate Piñata This project was a material exploration. Its purpose was to show the high impact resistance and optical clarity of polycar-bonate. This piñata lights up when hit to reveal the candy inside, which one will never be able to get to because of the toughness and durability of the material.

PROCESS:

The piñata was bent into its final shape from a single sheet of polycarbonate using a heat gun and lots of patience.

Hippogriff Robot

PROCESS:

This robot was created by a four person team for a Mechanical Systems Design class. The design requirements were that it had to walk one meter in less than 15 seconds, walk up a 10 degree incline, look like a hippogri� (half horse/ haldf eagle), and �ap its wings.

The robot was made from lasercut masonite and its six bar linkages were determined by using matlab to optimize the contact time.