Surface skeleton generation based on 360-degree profile scan

A rapid prototyping method is invented, which works on a specific data structure produced by an optical metrology technique: 360-degree surface profile scanning. A computer algorithm takes an object profile data, restructure the format, generate horizontal and vertical ribs, lay out the ribs on a 2D...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Chen, Lujie, Sass, Lawrence, Noel, Vernelle, Sung, Woongki
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: SPIE 2014
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/89826
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6374-8217
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0584-6382
Description
Summary:A rapid prototyping method is invented, which works on a specific data structure produced by an optical metrology technique: 360-degree surface profile scanning. A computer algorithm takes an object profile data, restructure the format, generate horizontal and vertical ribs, lay out the ribs on a 2D canvas and output the geometries to a file format compatible with laser cutters. A laser cutting machine is subsequently used to cut all the ribs from sheet materials. Then, the ribs are manually assembled based on computer-generated assembly codes. Through this process, the original object’s 3D surface can be prototyped rapidly at an arbitrary scale, which may well exceed the working dimension of the laser cutter.