Making blog

The team continued working on modeling the snake's head and body using Solidworks, and working out the mechanical features such as how the snake's mouth would open to take in the trash and how the conveyor belt would function to move the plastic trash through the snake.  
Samantha chose stainless steel to construct the Ocean Snake of Doom, the design team agreed this was a good choice of material that could hold up well in the harsh ocean environment.

Steve and Mike researched different snakes and marine animals to provide them with "design fuel".  How would The Ocean Snake of Doom's head look? What marine animals could they look to to understand how a creature moves through the water? What features on a creatures body help them move quickly through the water?  There are many questions that can be answered by looking to the natural world for clues!
They also looked at mechanical designs of conveyors and other manufacturing and processing processes for technical ideas.

The Team took Samantha's original design and studied the mechanical features of the snake and did a "rough" animation of the snake to understand how it might take in the plastic waste and also move through the water. They  looked at where filters might be placed,  how the conveyor belt would function, location of the plastic  breakdown box and position of the propellers.

The Team at PTI  ID got to meet Samantha the  Little Inventor of The Ocean Snake of Doom!
We had a great first meeting discussing her ideas and how we would work together to bring it to life and shared some initial design inspirations from the team.

The Team at PTI ID was intrigued by the many features of the Ocean Snake of Doom, including recycling of the trash collected. 

The team will first look for inspiration from the natural world to understand and develop the shape of the device, and then study the mechanics of the snake and look to existing industrial products to integrate  the technical features.  

The team will first collaborate on designs and modeling and then create a physical scale model of the Snake of Doom.