Robolithography Demo - Robot building a section of wall. |
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Description: The movie we posted illustrates Robolithography (Robotic assembly/printing of 3D products). The machine in this movie is actually just a CNC machine set up to place interlocking blocks into place. We like to use the term robolithography as it generally provides a more insightful view as to the machines functionality. CNC stands for computer numerical control. A CNC machine traverses thru the x-y-z planes by means of numbers provided to it. It's actually a bit more complicated...but that's the gist of it. The machine in this picture is assembling a section of wall out of Zipblocks. Zipblocks are very simple building blocks that interlock by virtue of placement. When this section of wall is finished it will be moved into place and filled with concrete. This machine can build virtually anything out of Zipblocks. It only needs to be programmed and supplied with some Zipblocks. Zipblocks are like giant toy-construction bricks that interlock on placement. People can easily use them as well as robots. They are ideal for use with robots as they are based on a cube and this makes it easy to manipulate blocks thru the x-y-z planes. As they interlock on placement...another ideal feature for use with robotics. Zipblocks are inexpensive and simple to manufacture. They are made from only two parts...sides and lugs. Sides are simply long flat rectangular shaped pieces. Lugs are S-shaped pieces that are used to connect blocks together. To create Zipblocks of different lengths you need only to increase or decrease the length of side pieces and have an adequate supply of lugs. The size of the lugs remains constant among blocks of different lengths. The length of the sides is the only thing that changes. The components required to create basic Zipblocks are incredibly easy to produce and assemble. Virtually any solid material can be transformed into basic Zipblocks with ease. The materials that one chooses to build blocks from will clearly be dictated by their use, costs of raw materials, durability, and many other factors. Zipblocks are so simple that you can make them out of plywood by making a few cuts and gluing or nailing a couple of pieces together. What makes Zipblocks so appealing is the fact that you can transform raw materials into Zipblocks at very low costs and this transition adds a great amount of value to your raw materials in that they are now a very easy to use product. To put things in perspective consider this scenario. Let's say that it costs $20 for a sheet of ¾ inch plywood and that it costs a factory $2 to transform one sheet of plywood into fully assembled blocks. In this case the transformation from plain plywood to Zipblocks generally speaking adds 10% to the costs of the raw materials. We can now visualize home improvement stores selling sheets of plywood for $20 and the equivalent plywood in bundles of Zipblocks for $22. Now let's say that you need to build a custom wall unit for your living room. Would you rather buy plywood and all of the other materials needed to build your wall unit and then go home and labor hard to assemble your wall unit or would you rather just buy the equivalent materials in Zipblocks and instantly assemble your custom wall unit in minutes without using a single tool? Based on the above scenario it's clear that the transformation of raw materials into Zipblocks provides significant savings in time and in ease of use. When Zipblocks finally enter the market we intend to offer convenient plans for DIY (do-it-yourself) projects like building dog houses, wall units, tables and etc. These plans will provide a manifest of the blocks needed as well as step by step assembly directions. More or less these plans will be similar to what you get when you purchase a toy-construction brick kit. What's more is that we anticipate the development of simple software programs that will generate block manifests and building plans based on drawings entered into simulated 3D environments. http://www.zipblocks.com Visit us to find out more about Zipblocks. 
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