Blog

I wanted to create a robot hand, to familiarize with Solidworks (and to have fun, honestly) The goal was to make a complex grabby hand, with multiple sub-assemblies, links and constraints, and to animate it in the end. It didn’t have to be realistic or functionale, though. This is what I came up with, after 7 hours of consecutive work :

Context Within the second semester of my DUT GMP (mechanical engineering and production), 3 of my colleagues and I lead a project. The goal of this project is to study a two-stroke weedwhacker engine, with the help of the material we have learned during the year. This link leads to a mini-website we made, and is what we presented to our professors at the deadline. Currently studying in France, this website is written in french. ...

I made an article about photogrammerty a few months back, but have learnt a few new things since, so it’s time for a revamp ! I came across this awesome tutorial on YouTube by CG Geek, and I followed his tips. I will only work on the render part of the photogrammetry, using only the little buddha scene from last time. The texture settings will be much better, as I’ll use nodes this time to set all the properties. ...

It all began with me walking into a video game shop. I decided to buy a new NES game, settled down on GOLF, one of the classics that were released with the console in 1985. Some games I previously owned The new game I got home, Decided to try it out, but it didn’t work. Well, it’ll be fine, I thought, this happens all the time. Just grab a q-tip, rub the contacts to free them from their dirt prison. Done, the q-tips were indeed dirty, indicating a good job of cleaning. There I go butting the cartridge back in the console… for it not to work. Then it hit me : i had bought a USA version of the game, but I own a french version of the console… ...

As always, my wandering on the internet led me to my next project. That’s how I found Adam Winrich, a artist which practices cracking whips for a living. He does very rapid and synchronized whip cracking shows, which I found amazing. This guy has beaten 16 whip-related world records ! So my research ensued and I found that Adam Savage, the host from the show Mythbusters, had also build a whip from a kangaroo hide. It looked awesome, and he even put it in a plexiglass display case ! ...

The Zwippy is a funny cute little creature created by a friend of mine, when she was a kid. It really is just a potato shaped creature with antennas, eyes and a spring to move around. I like to draw Zwippys. Actually, you can find them all around my lessons. So I decided to make 3D printed Zwippy medals. I at first thought about making 3D Zwippys, but they really belong in a 2D universe, because your imagination makes for what it lacks of features, because of its extremely simple design. ...

I discovered photogrammetry while browsing online, and was very interested by the subject. So, research time ! First of all, principle of operation : You basically take tons of photos of objects from different angles, feed the pictures to a program and it spits out a 3D model of the object with the corresponding texture ! Well it’s certainly more complicated than that, but oh well… What about real life applications ? Why would anyone ever want to have a 3D model of a specific object ? ...

The “Travaux personnels encadrés” are an assignement you have to do in groups during the 1ère shool year in France (corresponding to the 11th grade in the U.S.). This assignment has then to be presented to the teachers on a platform. With my group, we decided to host our work on a website, which is available here. We decided to study the bat and it’s echolocation system, and to illustrate the working principle with an Arduino robot that avoids objects using ultrasonic sensors. ...

During the summer break, I had a chance to use my cousin Loïck’s nice camera to have a little fun. So I filmed a toy train going around in a child’s room to create a fake intro sequence to a non existing movie. I named the movie “Little Johnny” because I wanted the said movie to be dramatic, this intro sequence being the beginning of a tragic story happening to a child. That tragic spirit is enhanced by the sad music of Yann Tiersen – “Comptine d’un autre été”. ...

The glass plate of my microwave oven broke, and the only compatible plate that could be found at the local pawn/charity shop didn’t have the little tabs on the bottom to assure a connection with the motor : it couldn’t spin. To solve this problem, I decided to design and 3D-print a plastic piece that could be glued on the bottom of the new plate. Here you can see the biggest piece that could be saved from the terror of the bin. I took measurements, and for more accuracy, of course the ruler had to be pink. ...