Advanced Computing

Michael Luftweissberg final project 

Julian Henderon and Lauran Sanburn Final Project 

Prototype 1 (w/ movement) - This is an example of the contraction we want to create with the fixture. By locating 5 critical points along the centerline of the 3D object and attaching string to these points we were able to do so. To create the desired pull with the string we used a straw to push down, therefore keeping the pulls more controlled and therefore the fixture's movement more predictable. 

If you don’t know what Grasshopper is (or think it’s a reference to Kwai Chang Caine), you are already in the wastelands of the digital age. It is one of the leading factors of Architecture 3.0, the second computational revolution for building design. This new phase is shortening the design process from months to days , and allowing a new generation to envision, design, and execute major projects with a single laptop.

The project has moved into the prototyping phase.  Ive created a form consisting of two identical parts that opens to form a continuous surface.  I am fabricating the form with Lasercut ribs drawn from the surface geometry using grasshopper.  The opening motion will be triggered by a proximity sensor through arduino and will cause the two halves to slowly rise transforming into the continuous surface floating just above head height.  I am experimenting with using grasshopper to color the ribs from the center of the form outward OR from the center Plane outward.  The idea is that there is a relationship of inside to outside and top to bottom that is experienced through the transformation.  Also it is an interesting real world visualization of the analytical potential of grasshopper.

We are trying to get our pieces ready for fabrication. We are having issues with making the tabs to join the edges. This is the only way to unroll, without overlapping edges. We are trying to find an efficient and clean solution. Any ideas?

--- Alvaro: The idea of prototyping sometimes is to find  that our geometry doesnt actually work. This is why we can go back and forth between the laser and the software. .. or even just catching mistakes within the software- This is the real advantage of digital fabrication. 

I can not really tell from the photo what the problem is. But if you are having only issues with the Paneling Tools Tabs command and your geometry is working fine then manually offset the border in Rhino with command: offset. 

A stepper motor is a motor controlled by a series of electromagnetic coils. The center shaft has a series of magnets mounted on it, and the coils surrounding the shaft are alternately given current or not, creating magnetic fields which repulse or attract the magnets on the shaft, causing the motor to rotate.

This design allows for very precise control of the motor: by proper pulsing, it can be turned in very accurate steps of set degree increments (for example, two-degree increments, half-degree increments, etc.). They are used in printers, disk drives, and other devices where precise positioning of the motor is necessary.

There are two basic types of stepper motors, unipolar steppers and bipolar steppers.