- Number
- 20190324424
- Published
- 2019-10-24
- Filed
- 2018-04-20
- Assignee
- DISNEY ENTERPRISES, INC.
- Inventors
- BÄCHER; MORITZ, COROS; STELIAN, KNOOP; LARS ESPEN, XU; HONGYI
- CPC
- G05B19/4097; G06F30/00; G06F30/10; G06F30/20
- Verdict
- High Hardware
- Source
- Google Patents · FreePatentsOnline
The keeper's note
CAD/fabrication of kinetic wire mechanisms (animatronic linkage, Bacher).
Abstract
Methods and corresponding systems that are useful in design and fabrication of kinetic wire mechanisms or characters. The method includes a computational technique for the design of kinetic wire mechanisms tailored for fabrication on consumer-grade hardware such as a desktop CNC bending device. The method takes as input a skeletal animation of the mechanism to be fabricated and estimates, from the skeletal animation, a cable-driven and compliant wire structure, which matches user-selected keyframes. To enable localized deformations, the technique involves shaping the mechanism's body (i.e., the wire) into functional spring-like entities at a set of locations along the length of the mechanism's body. The method involves determining where on the wire body to place these spring-like entities, determining which types or configurations of spring-like entities should be placed at each of these locations, and optimizing parameters of each user-selected spring-like entity for use at the locations on the wire mechanism.
Background
BACKGROUND1. Field of the Description
The present description relates, in general, structures or mechanisms formed of wire or having a wire skeletal structure, and, more particularly, to a computer-assisted design and fabrication method for wire structures or mechanisms that are compliant so that they can be actuated to bend to two or more positions without plastic deformation. Such compliant and actuated wire structures can be labeled “kinetic wire mechanisms” and can be used to provide animated characters or characters with moving body parts.2. Relevant Background
There are numerous applications for mechanisms and structures that are fabricated from wire or include a wire support structure or skeleton, and it is often desirable that these wire mechanisms be designed for actuation or driven movement or to be kinetic wire mechanisms. Such kinetic wire mechanisms can be used to provide an animated character for a show or display. By manually bending and assembling individual wire components, sculptors have mastered the art of designing wire characters that consist of rigid wire components jointed together at their ends. However, these assemblies usually are not compliant and are very time consuming to create, with their functioning and design being difficult to repeat and relying upon the skill and experience of the sculptor. There remains a need for automated or computer-assisted design tools for use in designing and fabricating kinetic wire mechanisms.
Indu
Claims
1. A system for design and fabrication of kinetic wire mechanisms, comprising: a data storage storing a skeletal animation of an object; and a system controller running a design module processing the skeletal animation to generate a model of the object, wherein the design module receives user input identifying a set of keyframes in the skeletal animation defining poses for the object, wherein the design module processes the set of keyframes to determine locations for spring-like entities on the model of the object, wherein the data storage further stores a database of fabricable templates of the spring-like entities, and wherein the design module identifies a set of the fabricable templates for each of the determined locations.
2. The system of claim 1, wherein the design module receives user input selecting one of the fabricable templates from each of the sets of the fabricable templates and wherein the design module inserts the selected one of the fabricable templates at a corresponding one of the determined locations.
3. The system of claim 2, further comprising a wire bending machine and wherein the wire bending machine operates to bend an input length of wire based on the model of the object to fabricate a kinetic wire mechanism including a plurality of spring-like entities with locations and configurations matching those of the fabricable templates inserted into the model of the object.
4. The system of claim 1, wherein the design module determines the locations for the spring-like entities by optimizing local stiffness properties for the model during bending movement through the poses defined in the set of keyframes.
5. The system of claim 4, wherein a generic template is provided in the model at each of the determined locations and wherein the design module optimizes deformation behavior of the generic templates to allow the model to move through the poses matching a set of target points on the object.
6. The system of claim 5, wherein the design module identifies the sets of fabricable templates by comparing deformation behavior of each of the fabricable templates in the database with the optimized deformation behavior of the generic templates in the model.
7. The system of claim 6, wherein the design module inserts one of the fabricable templates of each of the sets of the fabricable templates at corresponding ones of the identified locations in the model and optimizes one or more of the deformation behaviors for each of the fabricable templates in the model.
8. The system of claim 1, wherein the fabricable templates in the database include a plurality of polygonal templates of spring-like entities with increasing number of sides and a plurality of twin templates of spring-like entities each including two isosceles trapezoids.
9. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the fabricable templates is planar.
10. A system for design and fabrication of kinetic wire mechanisms, comprising: a data storage storing an animation including a set of keyframes defining differing poses for an object; a system controller running a computational tool that processes the animation to generate a wire structure model of the object matching the keyframes, wherein the computational tool determines locations for spring-like entities in the wire structure model to provide movements of the object in the animation, wherein the data storage further stores a database of fabricable templates of the spring-like entities, and wherein the computational tool inserts one of the fabricable templates at each of the determined locations; and a wire bending machine operating to bend an input length of wire based on the wire structure model of the object to fabricate a kinetic wire mechanism including a plurality of spring-like entities with locations and configurations matching the fabricable templates inserted into the wire structure model.
11. The system of claim 10, wherein the computational tool identifies a set of the fabricable templates for each of the determined locations, wherein the computational tool processes user input to select one of the fabricable templates from each of the sets of the fabricable templates for each of the determined locations, and wherein the design module inserts the selected one of the fabricable templates at a corresponding one of the determined locations.
12. The system of claim 10, wherein the design module determines the locations for the spring-like entities by optimizing local stiffness properties for the wire structure model during movement through the poses defined in the set of keyframes.
13. The system of claim 10, wherein a generic template of a spring-like entity is provided in the wire structure model at each of the determined locations, wherein the computational tool optimizes parameters of the generic templates to allow the wire structure model to move through the poses matching a set of target points on the object, and wherein the design module identifies the sets of fabricable templates by comparing parameters of each of the fabricable templates in the database with the optimized parameters of the generic templates in the model.
14. The system of claim 13, wherein the computational tool inserts one of the fabricable templates of each of the sets of the fabricable templates at corresponding ones of the identified locations in the wire structure model and optimizes one or more of the parameters for each of the fabricable templates in the wire structure model.
15. The system of claim 10, wherein the fabricable templates in the database include a plurality of polygonal templates of spring-like entities with increasing number of sides and a plurality of twin templates of spring-like entities each including two isosceles trapezoids and wherein each of the fabricable templates is planar.
16. A method of designing a kinetic wire mechanism tailored for fabrication on a desktop bending machine, comprising: providing a generic template of a non-fabricable spring-like entity and a plurality of fabricable templates of spring-like entities suited for fabrication via wire bending; receiving as input a rig of an object and a set of target poses for the object; with the input, generating a wire structure model based on the rig and the set of target poses; identifying one or more locations for positioning spring-like entities in the wire structure model based on the set of target poses; positioning spring-like entities configured based on the generic template in the one or more locations; optimizing the spring-like entities configured based on the generic template; for each of the optimized spring-like entities, determining a matching set of the fabricable templates; and in the wire structure model, replacing each of the spring-like entities based on the generic template with a fabricable spring-like entity defined by one of the fabricable templates from a corresponding one of the matching sets of the fabricable templates.
17. The method of claim 16, wherein the identifying of the one or more locations comprises optimizing local stiffness properties.
18. The method of claim 16, further comprising refining one or more parameters of one or more of the fabricable spring-like entities in the wire structure model, wherein the refining includes adjusting size of the one or more of the fabricable spring-like entities.
19. The method of claim 16, wherein the fabricable templates include a plurality of polygonal templates of spring-like entities with increasing number of sides and one or more templates of spring-like entities each including two isosceles trapezoids and wherein each of the fabricable templates is planar and suited for fabrication with a wire bending machine.
20. The method of claim 16, wherein the optimizing of the spring-like entities configured based on the generic template includes optimizing stiffness properties of the spring-like entities, whereby the optimizing is safeguarded against inelastic deformations.