Coily,
The Lamp

A continuum robot, disguised as a lamp:
exploring movements and connections

Duration
February- May 2025 (3 months)

Skills
Mechanical Prototyping, CAD modeling (SolidWorks), IDE Prototyping, 3D printing

Materials
Springs, PLA & PETG (3D printing), fishing lines, MG996R motors, PVC tubing, LED, acrylic, screws



Visitors interacting with Coily, the Lamp at the 2026 RISD Grad Show



Our everyday environments are filled with functional objects that make our lives work, but often remain emotionally and perceptually invisible until the moment needed.  By introducing movements to static objects, animating them, we don’t just perceive objects as tools, but begin to treat them as “living entities”. This cognitive shift encourages us to interpret the objects’ “states” and “feelings”, evoking a more profound level of representation and remembrance.(Bainbridge, Dilks, & Baker, 2019)

This made me wonder:
How does our relationship with objects change when they begin to exhibit a sense of presence?
"Objects With Life" was my master's thesis at the Rhode Island School of Design, exploring what happens when the static objects in our domestic spaces begin to move. My work looks at how movement can suggest intention, emotion, or personality — becoming a form of communication that creates cues through behavior rather than demand.
Background & Research


Coily, the lamp, is an extension of my earlier project, Twisty, the lamp. 

Where Twisty used motion mainly to signal, a functional tool for getting attention, Coily focuses on becoming a companion: a body-double presence for the user. Built on similar electronics, Coily trades signaling for fluid, organic movement, so it reads less like a device and more like an organism sharing the room with you.



Continuum Robotics
I looked into continuum robots for their fluid, organic movement, and that research led me to the concept. 
A light bulb that comes alive the moment it's plugged in!

Credit: A Lightweight Modular Segment Design for Tendon-Driven Continuum Robots
Concept Sketch
AI-rendered, refined in Photoshop 
However, after experimenting with different materials, forms, and scales, I found that the combined weight of the bulb and lampshade became too heavy for the structure to support.

This created a trade-off. Adding structure to carry the weight gave me stability but cost me fluidity. Alternatively, a hanging structure wouldn't have to fight gravity, potentially achieving the more fluid, organic movement I was after.


Sketches





Initial Concept of Coily, the Lamp
 This is the form that I ended up going with.   A "lamp creature": a form that isn't fixed, that can move freely on its own structure.

Most lamps have one orientation, one purpose, one place. Coily is designed to be different. It can be placed on a desk or mounted on a wall, a desk buddy or a friend in the corner of the room. You decide.

How It Works: Continuum Robotics


“Head and Tail” Movements

While standard robots rely on jointed articulation and stiff links, continuum robots move through continuous "flow" rather than fixed joints. These jointless structures typically use a flexible central backbone, often a high-tech material like Nitinol, supported by external spacer disks that guide actuation tendons.

After experimenting with different materials, I found that using clear PVC tubing as the central backbone, reinforced by external compression springs and 3D-printed spacer disks, was the easiest way to achieve thefluid, organic and organism-like movement I was looking for.

Movement exploring continuum robotics


Working prototype of the "upper body" movement
Here's how it works: four fishing lines (the actuation tendons) run outside the tubing, threaded through holes in the spacer disks and spaced 90 degrees apart in a circle. At rest, all four are held under tension. To bend the backbone, one line is pulled while the opposite line is released, drawing the central spine to one side.

Each line is tied to a spool on a servo motor. As the motor rotates, the spool winds or releases the line, creating the fluid, organic movement.



CAD & Prototyping





I modeled individual channels into the "body" of the creature and the infrastructure it's wrapped around, so the fishing lines and LED ring wires don't get tangled or interfere with the movement. Since the wires run through the PVC tubing (the center of the backbone), they aren't affected no matter how the backbone bends.
3D-printed body with fishing lines and wiring routed through



more details coming soon...


Coily, The Lamp          /           Background & Research           /           Sketches         /           How It Works: Continuum Robotics           /           CAD & Prototyping