Lego Mindstorms 3D Plotter 41
ShadoWolf sent us
one of the more creative uses that I've seen for Lego Mindstorms.
This one is a
3D Plotter
that makes use of Legos, GNUPlot, and a Netwinder. It can
make a 3d model of any surface. Not bad for a toy, huh?
CMMs are cool (Score:1)
My Dad has just finished a similar contract for Renishaw who make both the probes and the servo control systems for most CMMs. Very fun occupation....the ruby tipped ceramic probes are quite expenisve when the control software is buggy
plotter? (Score:1)
widths wide) to get the elevation of an atomic
surfaces). So this is truely a scanner as
opposed to a plotter.
nice but... (Score:1)
Yeah yeah I know... "Back in MY day..." but it's true! Mindstorms let you do it easier but then again isn't that what Visual Basic is supposed to do too?
nice but... (Score:1)
that what Visual Basic is supposed to do too?
Erm, that's what VB's supposed to do..
but it's also what (Perl|Python|TCL) [your choice]
actually do (moving away from the world of
Lego here, you understand).
--
A practical use (Score:1)
I can see technology like this being applied to reduce the amount of time engineers and others need to spend entering shape and texture data, thus letting them spend that time actually simulating product, leading to higher quality products.
Or am I on crack?
Posted by the Proteus
pricy but nice (Score:1)
how many other languages aside fm perl can u use to prog the rcx that are open source? i know there's the mob at 'http://www.multimania.com/legos/doc/index.html' with their
, but the site is hard to read (Score:1)
i checked out a number of sites (including the one above) info's okay but plzzzz, when you create a site take into consideration contrast. If you have everything on a black background and don't take into account the vLink, text and link colors the sites are diffucult to read (except possibly in the dark....
i went thru a couple of sites on the webring and they are pretty much the same...good into but difficult to read. if yr going to copy a format try (black text on white) or (black text on yellow) but please not (nearly black text on black)
pricy but nice (Score:1)
visual c++
borland c/c++
borland delphi
FAB (Score:1)
A practical use (Score:1)
Instead, the engineers will spend their time building more interesting lego robots rather than doing actual work :). I can see it now, all these 30 something engineers raiding their kid's lego sets just to get some more bits to build a better scanner....
Mindstorms and Linux? (Score:1)
~luge
Plotter (Score:1)
~luge
LegOS and Linux (Score:4)
http://www.multimania.com/legos/. [multimania.com]
there is also a mailing list/bulletin board system at:
http://www.lugnet. com/news/display.cgi?lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos [lugnet.com]
Finally, I've written a brief HOWTO (still very, very beta) at:
http://arthurdent.dorm.duke. edu/legos/HOWTO/HOWTO.html [duke.edu]
It's not much, but hopefully between the three of those the rest of you can figure out where to start.
~luge
Teaser (Score:1)
I can handle running a temporary mirror, if there's any other volunteers. Anyone?
mirror (Score:1)
only partial at the moment, but more going up as it comes across. poor thing.
Now if you'd said it was a lego scanning probe microscope [ncsu.edu], I would have been there alot sooner!
Arg! (Score:1)
@#&^@#*&
Of course I'm on the Mindstorms/robotics list which doesn't help either.
Mindstorms and Linux? (Score:1)
I've been watching the list for awhile and it would seem they have even re-wrote the firmware in the kit itself. And the have libraries and stuff so you can code with gcc if you like.
It should work.
Check here: http://www.crynwr.com/lego-robotics/
Real World uses? (Score:1)
As am STM researcher, I am annoyed at the
use of "Scanning Tunneling" combination
on their web page. No tunneling is involved here.
These people are grossly ignorant.
Besides, there is already technology to transfer
real shape into computers. High-end studios
routinely do this for special effects.
Real World uses? (Score:1)
negligible resolution, and I don't think
it's worth even $10. I don't have a problem
with people tinkering. I do have a problem
when they start spouting scientific terms
which have nothing to do with their stuff.
I also do not understand people who like
the end result of this particular tinkering
project.
Lastly, one can build an order of magnitude
better system for about the same price.
'Course it won't involve Legos, so some
babies out there won't be happy.
Yes, but... (Score:1)
Mindstorms and Linux? (Score:1)
If I'm reading this correctly, they used Linux for the plotting, but may have used another computer for controling the robot--I'm guessing that that was done with Windows and the software included with Mindstorms.
Wish I had signed up for it. (Score:1)
plotter? (Score:1)
what do i know.
Damn... (Score:1)
:(
--Corey
These Things are Cool (Score:1)
Real World uses? (Score:1)
How's the view from that high horse?
Real World uses? (Score:1)
I must applaud the site, even though it is something that may have been done before on a greater scale, this is with something that an every day joe can buy. Anyone can buy a set of Mindstorms, but I for one wouldn't have thought of trying to do this with them. BRAVO!
Teaser (Score:1)
Teaser (Score:1)
It takes 8 seconds to run, so that should be about 3 solid days to handle the slashdot pulse.
Teaser (Score:1)
The Public 8 Ball [federated.com]
Its a magic 8ball (fortune telling device for those unfamiliar) shaken by a mindstorms cradle, watched by a video camera, all displayed for you in your browser.
Sadly IE Windows will not work. Come with netscape or IE Macintosh. (It uses the multipart/x-mixed-replace mime type for the video.)
Enjoy.
actualy a coordinate measuring machine (Score:1)
The manufacturing world uses rather expensive CMMs with multi-directional sensing probes to verify tolerances on manufactured parts and assemblies. The probe is usualy computer driven and in sophisticated situations, the probe path is programmed from a CAD model. Use of these machines for "reverse engineering" is not as common as for tolerance verification.
In my previous job, I actualy designed and managed the development of a module for a high-end CAD package to program the probe path from a CAD model. It is still one of the projects I am most proud of. A Swiss watch band manufacturer was one of the customers for this product. I have never seen so much platinum in my life!
Real World uses? (Score:1)
I'm wondering if there are some potentials for the really neat applications - CAD/CAE modeling in a cheap, reusable material, etc...
I suppose crash simulations would be somewhat meaningless, unfortunately..
Mindstorms and Linux? (Score:1)
Plotter (Score:1)
http://staticip.cx/~benw/lego
Oh. Wow. (Score:1)
I'll say this much; It makes me want to go out and buy these things.
Way fun.
--
Real World uses? (Score:1)
The part is put under a robotic probing arm, and it automatically checks the position of points on the part to see if they are where they belong.
Terminology (Score:1)
make a similar robot and mount a low temp hot glue
gun on it, the you could have a cheap 'Santa Claus' Machine.
I think there is more info at
http://www.tinaja.com
Don Lancaster's site.