Laminate Pipeline

This project aims to enable designing laminate robot using Fusion 360.

Design in Fusion 360

Examples

It is best to try the entire process with one of these known working designs first.

• 1-layer Fourbar
• 5-layer Fourbar

Steps

Here are the general steps for designing your own laminate robots.

• Define materials thickness in the Parameters (Solid->Modify->Change Parameters). This step makes it easier when extruding layers later.
• Draw the design as multiple bodies on the XY plane.
• Convert bodies into components using New Component. You might want to set one of the component as Ground.
• Create Revolute Joints or Revolute As-built Joints. This represents where your design can be folded or rotated. Please make sure vertically the joint is located at the center of the intended flexible layer.
• Validate your design by folding the components into desired shape. If you want to add other non-laminate parts such as motors and PCBs, please create another design and import this to there. This way, other parts won't interfere with latter scripts.

Python Environment

The scripts are written in Python. Please install Miniconda/Anaconda to manage the python environment and required software packages. After installation, open an "Anaconda Prompt" and use the following commands. Mac environment is not tested.

Create a Python 3.8 environment.

conda create --name laminate python=3.8

Activate the environment.

conda activate laminate

Install foldable_robotics package.

pip install foldable_robotics

Please either clone or download and extract this repository to your desired folder.

Export from Fusion 360

• In Fusion 360, make sure your design is unfolded. You can drag the slider at the bottom to quickly go to a state where all components and joints are created and design is still flat.
• Under the Scripts and Add-Ins (Tools->Add-Ins->Scripts and Add-Ins), click the green plus sign to the right of My Scripts and select the "SaveLaminate" folder in this repository.
• Double click the "SaveLaminate" and follow the instructions on screen.
• The script will automatically convert the design and save some dxf and csv files into the folder you just selected. A complicated design might take a while to process.

Generate cut files

• In the "Anaconda Prompt", activate the environment.

conda activate laminate

• Then, run the script.

python PATH\TO\REPOSITORY\main.py PATH\TO\EXPORT\FOLDER

• After a while, two additional files named "EXPORT_FOLDER_NAME_layers.dxf" and "EXPORT_FOLDER_NAME_release.dxf" should be added to the export folder. You can open them with Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape, or other software

Fabricate

TBD