FABACADEMY2020 - Robin Wilmart

The fountain of despair

My Final Project

Inspired by Shakespeare's bloodiest play and its violent rewriting by Heiner Müller, the fountain of despair pictures the decline of the empire and is meant to be a masterpiece in the scenography of ANATOMY TITUS. From three heads the blood of the innocents flows. It is innocent blood, the blood of the doe, Lavinia's blood, daughter of Titus, general in the Roman army. The war is over. And even though Titus is victorious he is about to learn that war always comes with misery.

Summary slide

Presentation video

More than esthetic this project comes with interesting challenges. Since the fountain is on stage when the operator is backstage, the first challenge was to provide for remote control of the fountain. This was done through BLE and with a GUI that let the user change the flowrate of the pump via PWM. The second challenge was to make the fountain waterproof. This was made possible by transferring a thin layer of PU rubber on the fountain surface.

For more information about this project check the project development page.

Project development

Weekly Assignments

Here is what I've done week after week. Click on the pictures to know more about it.

Week 1

Principles and practices

Week 2

Project management

Week 3

Computer-aided design

Week 4

Computer-controlled cutting

Week 5

Electronics production

Week 6

3D scanning and printing

Week 7

Electronics design

Week 8

Computer-controlled machining

Week 9

Embedded programming

Week 10

Input devices

Week 11

Applications and implications

Week 12

Output devices

Week 13

Interface and application programming

Week 14

Invention, intellectual property, and income

Week 15

Networking and communications

Week 16

Molding and casting

Week 17

Wildcard week

Week 18

Mechanical design, machine design

About Me

Hi! I am Robin Wilmart. If you want to know more about me you are at the right section.

Robin Wilmart

12 March 1990

Mechanical Engineer
PhD Student at ULB
Université Libre de Bruxelles
Belgium

As far back as I can remember I have always been fascinated by the beauty of the world and if there was something that constantly drove me it was surely that compulsive need to understand its complexity, be it esthetic or linked to its peculiar inner workings. I have often admired Leonardo Da Vinci who brought together his penchants for art and science. His imagination was limitless: flying machines, humanoids, robots, drawings, painting, sculptures, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, paleontology, and cartography. He was afraid of nothing.

The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.
Leonardo Da Vinci

Also, each human being must one day face the mystery of life; philosophy books attempting to answer metaphysical questions fill whole shelves in libraries. What will have probably later lead me to study engineering is that magic spark that I saw in robotics’ ability to bring to life inanimate objects - to animate what isn’t in nature.

Today I am a mechanical engineer and I work as an assistant at the Department of Control Engineering and System Analysis (SAAS) at ULB (Université Libre de Bruxelles), Belgium. As a PhD student, I’m also developing a robotic knee rehabilitation device (an exoskeleton) to improve the effectiveness of the rehabilitation process and provide assistance to physiotherapists by performing exercises in harmony with the patient’s knee’s physiology.

I am very excited to take part in the Fab Academy experience. For me the Fab Academy is an opportunity to learn more about manufacturing methods in general and about digital manufacturing in particular, to put them into practice and to extend my use of open-source resources.