New Tool Idea
Posted: 24 Nov 2011, 11:15
This idea is not directly related to book scanning but there are many smart people on this board so I posted it in Social.
Thinking about CNC routers and feedback control of robots got me wondering if it is possible to make a semi-feedback-controlled hand-held grinder. The concept: Imagine a sculptor approaching a solid block of material with a hand held die grinder. The cutter is a carbide ball 1/2" in diameter. As she removes material and approaches the desired shape, the speed of the die grinder automatically decreases. When the cutter is very close to the final shape, the power is automatically cut to the die grinder. The cutter is then changed to a smaller one and the process repeats until the entire sculpture is finished.
It seems that the technology to accomplish this is not so challenging. The computer needs to know where the cutter is in three-dimensional relation to the three dimensional digital rendering of the sculpture stored within the computer. And of course the computer needs to know where the cutter head is in real three dimensional space. It seems that some kind of transmitter could be attached to the die grinder and three sensors mounted in the sculptor's studio in order to locate the grinder digitally. The rest is accessible software.
What do you think?
Thinking about CNC routers and feedback control of robots got me wondering if it is possible to make a semi-feedback-controlled hand-held grinder. The concept: Imagine a sculptor approaching a solid block of material with a hand held die grinder. The cutter is a carbide ball 1/2" in diameter. As she removes material and approaches the desired shape, the speed of the die grinder automatically decreases. When the cutter is very close to the final shape, the power is automatically cut to the die grinder. The cutter is then changed to a smaller one and the process repeats until the entire sculpture is finished.
It seems that the technology to accomplish this is not so challenging. The computer needs to know where the cutter is in three-dimensional relation to the three dimensional digital rendering of the sculpture stored within the computer. And of course the computer needs to know where the cutter head is in real three dimensional space. It seems that some kind of transmitter could be attached to the die grinder and three sensors mounted in the sculptor's studio in order to locate the grinder digitally. The rest is accessible software.
What do you think?