This week, I wrote and turned in my final report detailing my entire research and design process over the last couple of months and the final concept for the origami-inspired bag. This blog post contains more technical information and research than many of my last ones, so if you would like more information/details about the calculations and research references in this post please reach out and I would be happy to send you a copy.
Finalizing features
To see exactly how these patterns would benefit the storage area of a backpack, I calculated how much they would be able to expand.
The image above shows the expandability capabilities of the Huffman waterbomb and Resch Tessellations.
The image above shows the expandability capailties of the front pocket. The left side depicts the pocket in its folded state and the right side shows the segments of the unfolded pattern. The the area and volume of this pattern are shown below.
I also changed the design of the closure for the front expanding pocket, in the image below the development of this pocket is shown. To see the closure chosen continue to the next section!
Ergonomic research
As I continued to refine the backpack features, I began to do some research into ergonomic considerations when designing backpacks. This research strongly informed the design of the backpack straps and back, load distribution and sizing of the backpack and led to some design changes as well.
The biggest change I made was switching the functionality of the front expanding pocket and the shoe pocket. This was due to the following evidence:
it is optimal to distribute the weight vertically and for it to sit lower on the back
shoes tend to take up a lot of space but are relatively light compared to books, laptops or tablets that users are also likely carrying.
the ideal height of a backpack should fall between the shoulders and the hips. (the average straight-line torso length is between 46cm-52cm for men and 42cm-48cm for women)
the original shoe pocket needed to accommodate the height of the shoes when in use
the size of the bottom pocket can be shrunk slightly to better fit the optimal height of a backpack without sacrificing space in other areas of the bag
For the shape of the straps, I decided to go with S-straps as they help distribute some of the load to the chest and included a chest strap for the same reason
Final concept
Below is a sketch of the final proposed backpack concept.
In the orthographic sketches below, the backpack is shown in different states with its dimensions.
Unexpanded | ONLY bottom pocket expanded | ONLY shoe pocket expanded | Both pockets expanded |
|
|
|
|
Reflections & Next Steps
If I were to move forward with this project, I would like to test and prototype certain areas of the bag physically. Specifically, the folding capabilities and behaviour of the bottom pocket, as detailed above, as well as the behaviour of the expandable area at the front of the bag. With the paper pattern for the front of the bag, to transition from the open to closed states I would usually have to push back in and decrease the vertical folds. I am unsure if/how the fabric would behave with the elastic cord closure proposed and would therefore like to test this.
As I was researching backpack ergonomics, I realized that there are many ergonomic issues with current backpacks. In the future, it would be interesting to see if this is something that could be improved by using origami. For example, origami could be applied to distribute loads differently across the body.
In the last couple weeks of this internship, I plan to render the final concept of the bag.
Now that I the concept is completed, I plan to render and finalize it over my final weeks here.
Comments