This past week has been focused on getting the image alignment working, as well as beginning to get the scans as a model in Blender. We’ve also made some changes to the manipulator device itself.
Theo updated some parts for the manipulator, including a mount that incorporates linear bearings and electronics housing that attaches to the frame. The mount simply needs longer screws to allow the scanning of thicker objects, and the current design for the housing ought to work once printed; all of the changes will be implemented this week.
Sophia updated the Blender add-on and system pipeline to include the alignment algorithm from Yon and Theo, as well as starting work on getting the height maps imported to Blender as an actual 3D model. The new version with the 3D model creation automated is ready to test on Monday.
Yon implemented the alignment algorithm that we added to the workflow. The details of the algorithm are in Yon’s status reports from last week and this week.
Next week will be focused on adding finished quality-of-life touches like removing the extra whitespace from the imported Blender models (shown in Sophia’s post), comparing height map algorithms to go with the best one, and implementing the final changes to the manipulator.