Personal fabrication is currently a one-way process: Once an object has been fabricated with a 3D printer, it cannot be changed anymore; any change requires printing a new version from scratch. In this paper, we propose a different approach: instead of re-printing the entire object from scratch, we suggest patching the existing object and replacing only the unsatisfactory parts. This saves material and reduces waste, making a first step towards more sustainable 3D printing.
This project is a collaboration between Hasso Plattner Institute and Cornell University.
More Information:
https://hpi.de/baudisch/projects/patching-physical-objects.html
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| The machine has several additional axis of movement with laser 3d scanner and CN mill head |
Patching Physical Objects is a research project by:
Alexander Teibrich, http://www.teibrich.de
Stefanie Mueller, http://www.stefaniemueller.org
François Guimbretière, http://www.cs.cornell.edu/~francois/
Robert Kovacs, http://robertkovax.com/
Patrick Baudisch, http://www.patrickbaudisch.com
So far the system is designed to record a 2D surface and convert it into a PDF vector file. The Z axis is simply ignored in the output. Since the system actually records in a 3D space it is possible to export a 3D object for post processing. This is mainly a matter of implementing a another export method.
However, since the arm is not able to reach around an object in a 3D space it will not be possible to record all the points necessary to make a full 3D object (Update: In the source files we have a version with a rotating platform now). One possible workaround would be to implement a rotating base which would enable the arm to approach the object from all sides. Further, the software is only a usable prototype, but could be evolved into a much more solid tool.
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| I like the plywood frame arm! |
FreeLSS is a free as in open source, open hardware, and open electronic design 3D printable turn table laser scanning platform based on the Raspberry Pi. It is written in C++ and licensed under the GPL.
The scanning software runs self-contained on the Raspberry Pi without the need for a connected computer via USB. The user interface is completely web based and is exposed via libmicrohttpd on the Pi.
Laser sensing is performed via the official 5 MP Raspberry Pi camera. The camera can be operated in either video or still mode. Video mode camera access is provided by the Raspicam library. Reference designs for the electronics to control the lasers and turn table are available as Fritzing files. Access to the GPIO pins are provided by wiringPi.FreeLSS technical specifications:
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| HP Multi Jet Fusion 3d printer. I'm not a fan of the design, it looks like HP's digital camera I owned around 2000s... |
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| Illustration of Multi Jet Fusion process .. |
When I bumped into Abram Thau at Metrix Createspace in Seattle's Capitol Hill, he showed me a few printed figurines, including a Storm Trooper (of the Star Wars variety), and I thought at first that he had printed them as duplicates of similar-sized commercial products. Not so: It turns out these are made-from-life, specifically from cos-players who have stood on Abram's human-suitable turntable (powered by a chicken rotisserie motor hooked to a 3-D printed pulley) while he scanned them in.
Thau's apartment is practically shouting distance from Metrix, but that pulley was made on a large Deltabot filament printer in the corner of his living room. (A living room usefully cluttered with tools, bottles of resin, projectors in various states of repair, and more printed objects.) More interesting still, Thau's figurines are produced with a home-built resin printer. Resin is messier to work with than the filament feedstock of RepRap/Makerbot style printers (and the resin itself has a slight odor), but it allows different results. Overhanging pieces are possible without requiring elaborate support pieces built into the mesh, and the resulting product can be noticeably smoother than typical filament printing, though all 3-D printing techniques are getting better. Thau didn't buy one of the commercially available resin printers, though (like FormLabs's), but instead decided to build his own out of scavenged and off-the-shelf components.
Budget concerns and improvisation rule the day (Thau is also a grad student, studying to be a middle school teacher): That means there's a book holding up the projector which is vital to curing the resin, and the printer's case is recycled from a previous one. The results look as good as the affordable commercial ones I've seen, and he's excited to teach others to make their own. Third-party resin makers and a robust market in used projectors mean that other hobbyists can follow his lead and turn their friends into figurines
- The Robocular 3D Scanner combines high quality components with high quality software to create 3D models that are very close representations of the real object.
- Our scanners all use 5mW green line lasers for increased resolution and accuracy.Why is green better than red? CMOS color webcams have twice as many green pixel receptors as red, allowing us to capture a much higher number of clear points.
- The scanner contains one HD camera to measure the laser.
- We use high gear steppers and a positional feedback system to get angular resolution that is 0.1 degrees or better. This allows us to know the position of the turntable to an accuracy of 0.1 degrees or better (we are planning on making that even better). Right now we consistently measure 13 bits of angular precision. Also, if the object is heavy and the turntable motor skips we know about it.
- We use in-house novel software and algorithms to capture geometry, color and texture and combine the three to get the best looking model. We've modified and created new algorithms that can do this quickly and consistently.
- Our standard scanner contains a servo guided laser that increases the number of angles that can be seen (image below)
- Our standard scanner uses a movable assembly to be able to capture multiple scans of the same thing
- An enclosure surrounds the scanner so that colors and lighting can be properly selected, while keeping the lasers contained within the box. By keeping it in an enclosure, you don't have to worry about external lighting - usually when it's dark outside the laser will look great but the colors won't be visible, and when it's light the laser will barely appear but the colors will. Our scanner controls its environment by using its own white LED system. Having an enclosure also adds an extra layer of protection to eye safety by keeping it isolated.
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| Robocular Standard and Mini |
Volumental is the world's first cloud-based 3D scanning service. Volumental's online service lets anyone create 3D models of people, objects and rooms. With only a few clicks you record a short film that we convert into a 3D model within minutes. The models can easily be shared online, downloaded, edited and printed in 3D or used in virtual environments. Volumental offers tailored solutions to solve companies' specific needs for simple and robust 3D scanning.
- Turntable: The most basic and lowest cost 3D scanning systems use laser point or line projection onto an object positioned and rotated on a turntable. Prices range from a few hundred dollars up to low thousands. As a handheld solution, Fuel3D holds a significant flexibility advantage over these systems, as they are fixed position and the object being scanned is limited by turntable size.
- Sweeping laser line: To enable scanning of larger objects, scanners are available that project a laser line, which sweeps across a stationary subject. With a few exceptions, prices for these technologies are typically in the $20,000 – $50,000 range. Fuel3D has a very strong price advantage over all these systems, with the added benefit of handheld flexibility and color capture.
- Hand-held: 3D scanning systems have been developed to enable maximum scan flexibility for working around objects of almost any shape and size. Prices of hand-held solutions are now as low as $15,000 – $30,000. In addition to Fuel3D being much less expensive, we are not aware of any of these handheld systems that collect color data in addition to 3D geometry.
- Microsoft Kinect: Some low-cost handheld scanning solutions are being developed using the Microsoft Kinect platform. These systems are typically quite low-resolution resolution, so while they are good for capturing environments, they do not have the data precision or resolution for detailed object capture like Fuel3D.
Anna Kaziunas France met with SoftKinetic's Chief Marketing Officer Eric Krzeslo at their suite in the LVH to ask him about their new partnership with MakerBot to enhance their 3D camera technology for 3D scanning that was announced Monday at CES 2014. SoftKinetic is provides 3D vision and and gesture recognition technologies for the consumer electronics, automotive and industrial markets; who license their intellectual property.
Patented DepthSense® 3D Imaging time-of-flight CMOS sensor is smart enough to understand the most subtle of everyday human gestures and the shape, size and behavior of objects. It measures how long it takes for infrared light to make the trip from the camera and back – the time-of-flight – and gives the 3D DepthSense camera power to turn raw data into real time, 3D images, as well as greyscale confidence and depth map images.
