Mechanical Design Challenge: Event Recap

March 18, 2021

FORGE hosted its first Design Challenge, allowing three startups to pitch their mechanical design challenges to supplier experts. The panel featured representatives from ICSN Group, a product development firm with a branch office right here in Massachusetts! ICSN specializes in design for manufacturability, engineering, and contract manufacturing.

The first startup, Urbx, is working on an automated omni-channel fulfillment system. Their design challenge was oriented around their tower bot, which was bulky and complicated to build, leading to extra expense.

Cleo Robotics is designing a compact and rugged UAV designed specifically for safe operation indoors and in confined spaces for defense and first-line responders. Their signature product, the Dronut, was being weighed down by its battery pack. They also wanted to redesign the battery to have a quick release mechanism to make changes easier and faster.

Finally, Florabot is working on Bloomhouse, the first robotic floral vending machine. Their most pressing design challenges were creating a modular design that can be adjusted to fit different customers’ specifications, as well as fabricating steel for their existing design.

After careful deliberation, ICSN awarded Florabot 20 hours of pro bono work to help solve their design challenge. The panel appreciated that Florabot had demonstrated existing customer demand through their growing waitlist and knew that they needed help as soon as possible.