The Sky’s the limit for 3D Printing at ThingLab
24/06/08

The brief was to design and 3Dprint a light-weight but strong, articulated rig capable of holding a camera while flying hundreds of metres up on a kite! Simple: use a ProJet 3000 3D printer from 3D Systems. The camera would have to be held securely to the kite line while allowing it to be pointed in any direction and take hundreds of pictures fully automatically.

The final design was printed out in one go, the various joints and gears having been designed in place with a .1mm clearance between any two parts required to move independently. The VisiJet SR200 build material is strong enough to be used for functional finished products. The gears, axels and sleeves freely revolve, printed in place with no assembly, producing a 20:1 reduction ratio. The springiness of the material allows the servos to be held in place by sprung catches.

The 3D design work was done using 3D Studio Max and included 5 independent moveable stages, a complete gear system, fittings for 4 servos, a microcontroller, batteries and, most importantly, a digital camera.

Once support material was melted away and the electronics added, the complete system was ready for flight. Flown from Hamstead Heath the rig worked first time taking 360degree pictures across London.