#reality computing

[chrispfolio]

Robotic Reality Capture is a collaborative project between Cody Soska, an IDeATe major, and Chris Perry, a design major. This project for Reality Computing in Carnegie Mellon’s IDeATe program, taught by Pyry Matikainen.

The goal of this project is to automate the entire reality capture process using robotics. The ADA (Assistive Dextrous Arm) was programmed to navigate around a mount and pause at specific intervals. The robot’s end effector was holding a 3D printed mount for a smartphone with a timed camera application open and captured images within each paused state. These images would later be combined to generate a 3D model of the object that could be applied in a virtual reality environment, or used for research and educational purposes. We believe this method of reality capture has more precise movements and can be applied to capture small scale objects with better detail than a human operator would be able to.

Inspiration for this project largely came from Scholastic’s The Magic School Bus, and we hope that as this project progresses, that we will be able to provide people with the same awe and wonder we did growing up, in full immersive 360°.

Libraries for the robotic arm can be found here