Assignment

POST Find something you encounter in real life (or a retail product or art project online) that has a soft cable to pull or string as part of its function
- Soft Robotics Spring 2025: Weekly Post Links
#4 MAKE and POST simple cable controlled experiments
- Please bring experiments to class!

Real Life Soft Cables

I decided to focus on my iron that has a retractable cable unit at the bottom
- The cord bundles up neatly on the bottom of the iron and when I want to pull it back out I can pull it until I reach a stop and it’s extended.
- There is a button that can then be pressed that brings the cord back in, I imagine by releasing the stop that was holding the cord in its extended position.
As someone who struggles with cable management and getting things tied up I find this mechanism extremely useful and also fun and started to wonder why more devices or appliances that have plugs don’t have this mechanism.
- One guess is that it takes up extra space in the design and makes manufacturing more difficult but considering the pain this causes me I definitely would find this a plus in other appliances.
- One counterpoint to this is I bought both of these items at local discount stores in my neighborhood so they were actually more affordable and more convenient than other high-priced or brand name alternatives.
Other examples: I noticed that this tape measure I have also has the same button mechanism where you can press the button in the center to bring the tape measure back in

I reviewed the class lecture examples to see what I most wanted to try and then gathered materials from my house that I use for various crafting and fiber projects that I could use for cable experiments for the semester. This included things we had in class like different types of tape, beads, yarn, string, and embroirdery hoops

Materials used: Plastic straws, Printer paper , Tissue paper, Wooden beads, Cotton string