Stress Testing the Stand-Up Machine

The whole point of MyMachine is to experience how challenging, but also wildly nice it is to create new solutions through interdisciplinary collaboration. Here’s an example from Norway. At Dahlske technical secondary school, students from Technology and Industry and students from Automation are joining forces to build the Stand-Up Machine. 

Mathea, Annika and Casper have made it so that the jack, which moves the bed up and down, now starts a program that both raises and lowers the bed and triggers an electric motor to create shaking. According to Annika, this MyMachine assignment has been the best (!) so far. According to automation teacher and MyMachine super-enthusiast Magnus, the task represents a relatively high level of competence, which they will try to stretch even as a result of this stress testing by the child-inventors. Because wouldn’t it be fun if it varied how long it took from when you pressed the button to the bed rise? Or if the wait would be filled with dinosaur roars? This will require digital technology in addition to the analogue used so far, and we are waiting in anticipation.

The child-inventors from Holviga Barneskole, turned out to be experts in stress testing. The test revealed several improvement needs based on children’s non-regular use (such as gathering large numbers of children in one bed at the same time, such as it being fun to hang on to the headboard rather than slipping off).