Fabrication of digital anamorphic sculptures with industrial robot

Abstract

© Springer International Publishing AG 2017. The fabrication process of complex architectural designs in the real world requires precise and complex movements in the workspace. The robotic arms can fulfil this requirement, which makes them an excellent choice for a set of digital fabrication tasks. This paper presents a design methodology for the generation of anamorphic sculptures based on input grayscale image. To represent pixels in real world, wooden sticks are used. The colour of a grayscale image is represented by setting the appropriate orientation of the wooden sticks with respect to the initial vertical position. To achieve good results a large number of sticks is required to be placed and oriented precisely. In order to do this, the holes are drilled at a specified angle in a wooden base. Drilling is carried out with a driller mounted on a ABB IRB140 robot arm. After the drilling is finished, wooden sticks are manually placed in each hole.