Open Source Mechanical Design?

[stupoty]

That may be true overall, but they seem to be pretty open when it comes to sketchup. They created a 3D warehouse where everyone can share their drawings and components. What I would be suggesting would hardly be much different from that. In fact, they'd probably just tell me to do my open source designing via their 3D warehouse. The only problem with that is that their warehouse isn't set up for individual projects like GitHub is. At least not as far as I am aware.

"Free domain" and "Open source" are two distinctly different approaches.

For example google just canned google plus and every ones work is going to be wiped.

I quote "Your Google+ account is going away April 2, 2019. Downloading your Google+ content may take time, so get started before March 31, 2019."

Another example is the GPS route logging software that I used to use when cycling, they just canned that and didn't have a download that could be side loaded to a phone which I found out when I got a new phone.

Free to use is good but it isn't open source. This can kill a project quite easily.

Worrying things in the 3D warehouse terms of service :

"Subject to these Terms of Use, you may use 3D Warehouse to view, search, locate, download, and Distribute Models. Trimble reserves the right to refuse access to 3D Warehouse to anyone at any time in its sole discretion. "

"Nothing herein grants you any license, rights, title or interest in or to the Trimble SketchUp software which is licensed to you pursuant to a separate agreement (“SketchUp License Agreement”). Trimble may update, fix or upgrade the SketchUp software from time-to-time without notice and such changes may affect compatibility or interoperability of your Model. Your right, if any, to receive such updates, fixes or upgrades is dependent upon and governed by the terms of the applicable SketchUp License Agreement between you and Trimble. "

Their will be more in it but I'm not a lawyer, just a geeky kind of guy who has had the pole in the hole from things like this a few times before in my life.


Ra Ra Ra Let Me tell You and I just wanted to say !!



(obligitory monty python quote slightly abridged and repurposed)


Stu

 

[vtcnc]

I've been using the free version of Google Sketchup Make 2017. It's been doing everything I need to do up to this point. But I realize that this could be a problem in terms of what CAD software other people might want to use.

I think I can go that route on my own, but this would then limit only contributors who are willing to use Sketchup for 3D drawings. Or at least use only other CAD software that is compatible with saving component in Sketchup format.

Which CAD software to use will be a big decision I imagine.

I would stay clear of Sketchup. Google is known for killing products because they treat them like projects. If Google loses interest, even if it is popular, they will kill it. Sketchup probably won't last much longer with the advent of Autodesk Fusion 360 - I suspect 3DS will follow suit soon with some version of Solidworks online, and then of course, yes - there is FreeCAD. I've used FreeCAD and find it very difficult to learn.

I've been using Autodesk Fusion 360 for sometime now and have quickly learned how to do sheetmetal, part design, complex assemblies, sliding fits, etc. Learning more as I continue to use it. It is free for hobbyists and it looks like it will stay that way for quite some time. If you want help with CAD files in Fusion, let me know. The thing to remember with almost all CAD packages is that they can export files into .step and .iges file format. These are universal CAD file formats that (almost) all CAD packages can reliably import. Any open source files should be saved in .step and/or .iges. You could zip different packages together so other open source contributors could pick which format works best for them.

EDIT: forgot to add that Fusion 360 will let you share files with others and they can be version controlled with notes.

Let me know if you want help with the CAD program. I'm currently plowing through several projects but can always use the practice and this sounds like a fun project to collaborate on. PM me and we can exchange email addresses and take some of this offline if need be.

 

[Robo_Pi]

I've been thinking of moving over to Fusion 360 as I see it being used quite a bit. I should probably do that immediately before getting too deep into this project. I imagine a lot more people will be more likely to be using Fusion 360. From what I understand Fusion 360 is also directly compatible with creating CNC files and possibly also with 3D printing, although I'm not sure about the latter.

If I move over to Fusion 360 that's going to put this whole thing hold while I learn how to use it.

Instead of working on a robot head I'll be working on learning how to draw in Fusion 360.

And I'm not getting any younger.

 

[stupoty]

I've used FreeCAD and find it very difficult to learn.

I'm glad it's not just me then

I was spending a bit of time on it last year but I opened it the other day and was a bit like , errrmm what do I do again ?

Stu

 

[vtcnc]

I've been thinking of moving over to Fusion 360 as I see it being used quite a bit. I should probably do that immediately before getting too deep into this project. I imagine a lot more people will be more likely to be using Fusion 360. From what I understand Fusion 360 is also directly compatible with creating CNC files and possibly also with 3D printing, although I'm not sure about the latter.

If I move over to Fusion 360 that's going to put this whole thing hold while I learn how to use it.

Instead of working on a robot head I'll be working on learning how to draw in Fusion 360.

And I'm not getting any younger.

Based on my experience, I think you will find that you will have your head frame modeled in a couple of days of screwing around in F360. It may even import Sketchup files.

If you do use it, watch the Lars Christiansen videos on YouTube. Very easy to pause and follow along with him.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Robo_Pi]

I'm downloading it as we speak. It's going to be a while for the download and installation. I'm going to go out and cut down a couple trees in the meantime. I need to make some lumber.

 

[Robo_Pi]

Ok I have Fusion 360 up and running. It's all set up with a Startup License. So I'm good to go.

 

[Robo_Pi]

Ok, I did some work in Fusion tonight. No actual CAD yet. All I've done so far is start up a new project and inserted some attached canvases to work with.

First I had to put the Alysha mask on my own head to fill it out. Then I took some photographs of it on my head. I then took those photos into a graphics program and removed the background.

Then I created three new components in Fusion 360. I attached a front view of the mask and two side views. Then I scaled them all to the correct size. Finally I put them all on top of each other and aligned them using the corners of the lips and eyes. The nose was slightly off between the front view and side views because of the angle I held my head at when taking the photos. But I don't think that will be a problem.

Here's the three scaled canvases of the Alysha Head. These are actual photographs of the actual mask I'm working with.







I did create a quick sketch just to draw lines to aid in the alignment of the canvases. But after all the scaling and alignment was done I deleted that sketch as it will no longer be needed.

Now I need to draw up this face. That's not going to be an easy task.

I do have an idea of how to get started.

Notice in the next graphic I drew a bold red line down the entire mask just in front of the ear. I actually did that in PC Paint just for this explanation.



What I think I'll do is start with the front few of the face and just create an outline of the face without the ears. Just the outer most edges no facial features like eyes, nose or mouth. Just a blank outline of the face. Then create a surface on that boundary. Then by using some kind of stretch or pull tool (which I'm sure Fusion 360 must have) I can pull the face surface out by the tip of the nose. I can use a side-view canvas to know precisely how far out to pull it. And then I can anchor the tip of the nose.

From there I can start pulling the surface toward all the other features and anchoring those points until I have the bulk of the face shaped. Then I can start adding details using various other tools and features.

That's the idea I have for modeling the face. I figure this is probably the best place to start. I will be better able to then model a skull frame to fit this mask.

Also, later, after I have the face formed. I think I might go back and change the original back edge to be more like the bold blue line I drew in the graphic below



And then I'm thinking of cutting the actual mask along this line. This will make the face more easily removable in actual practice when working with the face in real life. I might even cut up the back part of the mask as well into more manageable pieces to make it easier to access all the servos.

When the face is complete it will be fitted with a wig and the hair will cover all the surgery scars.

There will also be eyeballs behind the openings in the eyes. But no need to worry about that right now.

The nose already has holes in the nostrils and they did a pretty good job of curving the nostrils back into the nose. So that's a pretty nice feature of this mask.

The lips do not open. They are well-formed, but are not cut apart. I will need to cut the lips apart and support them from inside with something to give them body to keep their roundness. I actually have some pretty interesting ideas of how to make the internal lips. I'm thinking that I can make the internal lips dynamic so they can move in ways that might simulate real lips fairly well.

The mask is flexible enough that once the lips are cut open the jaw should be able to move up and down to a fair degree. I'll definitely want to incorporate a movable jaw. I also have ideas for adding both teeth and a tongue.

Am I getting too carried away with this?

I've had the ideas for making a robot head like this for a very long time. I only just recently bought this mask and now that I have it it's time to do something with it.

I'm not even worried about having a robot to put it on right now, Although I am building a robot body that I could put this head on. But for this project I just want to focus on the head.

 

[Robo_Pi]

Make your own eyeballs.



Originally I was thinking of buying ready made eyeballs. They can be purchased fairly reasonable for about $10 a pair or less. They are very good looking too. However there are two problems with them. The first problem is that most of them tend to be slightly smaller than actual human eyeballs. In other words, they might potentially be too small for this mask and not look right.

The second problem is that if I want to turn them into cameras using fiber optics I'll end up having to drill them out so the fiber optic can replace the pupil. I'm not sure if I want to go that far with the eyes. I think it really would be cool if the robot head had eyes that could actually see. This could actually be used with face tracking software to make the eyes follow someone's face and make it appear that the robot is really looking at them.

In any case, I just found this video on how to make your own eyeballs. Looks quite intriguing. I could potentially make custom eyeballs to fit the mask perfectly and even design them around a fiber optical cable.. It's just an idea. But might be one worth looking into.

Here's the video on how easy it is to make your own eyeballs.

Using this method you could make them whatever shape you need, especially on the back side where they would need to be connected to servos, and/or a fiber optic cable.

The dream of having functioning eyeballs is probably overkill. But like I say, it probably wouldn't hurt to look into this.

I would most likely still have a high resolution camera on the robot somewhere else so the robot can see with great detail. In fact, I was thinking of giving Alysha a hat to hide the camera in. That would be far down the road.

But the fiber optic eyeballs might provide enough resolution for the face following trick. And that would really bring the eyes to life. Nothing seems more real than eyeballs that can look directly at you.

And the hi-res camera in Alysha's hat might even be able to do facial recognition so Alysha can know exactly who she's looking at.

With today's technology there doesn't seem to be any limits on what can be done.