Boxelization

Abstract

Figure 1: Folding a car into a cube. Our system finds a collision-free folding sequence. AbstractWe present a method for transforming a 3D object into a cube or a box using a continuous folding sequence. Our method produces a single, connected object that can be physically fabricated and folded from one shape to the other. We segment the object into voxels and search for a voxel-tree that can fold from the input shape to the target shape. This involves three major steps: finding a good voxelization, finding the tree structure that can form the input and target shapes' configurations, and finding a non-intersecting folding sequence. We demonstrate our results on several input 3D objects and also physically fabricate some using a 3D printer.

Worst‐Case Rigidity Analysis and Optimization for Assemblies with Mechanical Joints

“…Also, assemblies with mechanical joints can be employed to create transformable designs, e.g., foldable assemblies [ZSMS14, LHAZ15, MEKM17], deployable structures [ZWC∗16, ZSC16], and reconfigurable assemblies [GJG16,LMaH∗18,YZC18]. Transformable designs focus on functionalities to be delivered by different configurations of the assembly, in which the mechanical joints define the transformations between the configurations.…”

An overview on joining/welding as post-processing technique to circumvent the build volume limitation of an FDM-3D printer

“…Researchers have attempted several approaches to develop this framework. This includes approaches such as Chopper (Luo et al , 2012), wherein male and female connectors are used, Voxelization (Song et al , 2015), PackMerger – converting 3 parts into shells and then breaking them into smaller parts, 3D burr puzzle (Xin et al , 2011) and Boxelization – transforming a 3D object into a cube or a box (Zhou et al , 2014). Examples of 3D printed parts joined by this technique are depicted in Figure 6 below.…”

Romeo

“…Li et al and Garg et al proposed computational approaches to design foldable furniture to save space while not in use [20,11]. In this process, Boxelization helps transform a 3D object into a series of small cubes where adjacent cubes are either linearly-linked and/or fold [36]. Huang et al explores the design and animation of the motion of transformation based on the input 3D model and target skeleton representing the desired figure [14].…”

“…Prior work focused on actuating passive objects [4,27,22] using attachable mechanisms, yet has not taken account how to transform given objects. Prior work that addressed transformables tends to focus on computational analysis of geometry and optimization [35,36,14], rather than providing design assistance to create user-defined custom transformables. Further, these approaches almost exclusively exploit geometry as the only constraint when generating a transformable design (e.g., [35]), with little consideration of obtained functionality, i.e., how a transformable can perform a user-defined task.…”