Varnesh's Reflection

Reflection

With many ideas proposed by the members of the team, the idea of redesigning the safety helmet based on the hedgehog was proven to quite an interesting yet challenging project for both the team and I. It was quite an approach to use the hedgehog as a reference for a safety helmet because the safety helmet consists of a hard outer shell like that of a turtle or an armadillo but not a hedgehog. Upon further research on the structures of a hedgehog, it was discovered that the tiny quills which the hedgehog uses to protect itself is actually hollow hairs made stiff by keratin. When threatened, the hedgehog curls into a ball while displaying its sharp quills to the would be predator. The quills are controlled by muscles attached to the body of the hedgehog which controls the direction of the quills pointing at. It was then discovered that there quills can also be used as dampers to absorb energy by impact and it could be incorporated into a helmet.

The team worked hard to come up with simulation of the helmet including all the components involved using the Solidworks software. I on the other hand was in charge of reverse engineering the designed product to determine the connection of the helmet to that of a hedgehog. During the ongoing progress of the research, I have learned a lot about hedgehogs such as their food routine, their daily habits, the physical structures of it and many others. It has highlighted to me the importance of biomimicry on how nature can actually improve the innovation of human designs.