eprintid: 10073138
rev_number: 18
eprint_status: archive
userid: 608
dir: disk0/10/07/31/38
datestamp: 2019-05-03 15:55:10
lastmod: 2022-01-13 23:36:00
status_changed: 2019-05-03 15:55:10
type: article
metadata_visibility: show
creators_name: Roussel, R
creators_name: Cani, M-P
creators_name: Leon, J-C
creators_name: Mitra, NJ
title: Exploratory design of mechanical devices with motion constraints
ispublished: pub
divisions: UCL
divisions: B04
divisions: C05
divisions: F48
keywords: Science & Technology, Technology, Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Science, Computational design, Design space, Constrained exploration, Drawing machines, Mechanical motion, Fabrication
note: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
abstract: Mechanical devices are ubiquitous in our daily lives, and the motion they are able to transmit is often a critical part of their function. While digital fabrication devices facilitate their realization, motion-driven mechanism design remains a challenging task. We take drawing machines as a case study in exploratory design. Devices such as the Spirograph can generate intricate patterns from an assembly of simple mechanical elements. Trying to control and customize these patterns, however, is particularly hard, especially when the number of parts increases. We propose a novel constrained exploration method that enables a user to easily explore feasible drawings by directly indicating pattern preferences at different levels of control. The user starts by selecting a target pattern with the help of construction lines and rough sketching, and then fine-tunes it by prescribing geometric features of interest directly on the drawing. The designed pattern can then be directly realized with an easy-to-fabricate drawing machine. The key technical challenge is to facilitate the exploration of the high dimensional configuration space of such fabricable machines. To this end, we propose a novel method that dynamically reparameterizes the local configuration space and allows the user to move continuously between pattern variations, while preserving user-specified feature constraints.

We tested our framework on several examples, conducted a user study, and fabricated a sample of the designed examples.
date: 2018-08-01
date_type: published
publisher: PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
official_url: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cag.2018.05.023
oa_status: green
full_text_type: other
language: eng
primo: open
primo_central: open_green
article_type_text: Article
verified: verified_manual
elements_id: 1565813
doi: 10.1016/j.cag.2018.05.023
lyricists_name: Mitra, Niloy
lyricists_name: Roussel, Robin
lyricists_id: NMITR19
lyricists_id: RBMRO98
actors_name: Roussel, Robin
actors_id: RBMRO98
actors_role: owner
full_text_status: public
publication: Computers & Graphics
volume: 74
pagerange: 244-256
pages: 13
issn: 1873-7684
citation:        Roussel, R;    Cani, M-P;    Leon, J-C;    Mitra, NJ;      (2018)    Exploratory design of mechanical devices with motion constraints.                   Computers & Graphics , 74    pp. 244-256.    10.1016/j.cag.2018.05.023 <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cag.2018.05.023>.       Green open access   
 
document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10073138/1/authorVersion.pdf