the team of max greenberg, sameer yeleswarapu, ian cullimore developed the ‘cirin’ RC car as part of the formula E race at art center college of design. the car is powered by a 16-foot rubber band that propels it at upwards of 30 mph for a few hundred feet. two servos enable braking and steering.
‘we focused on creating a vehicle that would combine all of our past engineering education with the sculpture and industrial design skills we have acquired at art center,’ says greenberg. ‘we drew inspiration from mid 1950’s formula 1 cars as well as the truss structures found inside the bones of a birds wing. these structure are both light and rigid, ideal properties for the car we wanted to design.’
the mechanical layout was arranged in solidworks, and prototyped through several iterations. once
the mechanisms were finalized, a combination of rhino and T-splines was
used to develop the biologically-influenced truss form.
the manufacturing of the body was sponsored by advanced 3D printing company, solidconcepts. utilizing selective laser sintering of a proprietary nylon powder formulation, the form was freed of all geometric constraints, without compromising engineering grade material properties. a single unibody construction ensured highly controlled tolerance of mechanical components and a nearly complete elimination of fasteners. the bio-truss structure is built to withstand the immense torsional stress put on the frame by the wound band.
from designboom