robot?? cnc? woodworking? compass.
robot?? cnc? woodworking? compass.
Compass is a robotic routing tool that helps you cut things precisely out wood. You move the device roughly along your design while it auto-corrects to cut the design perfectly. Designs are loaded from your computer using the same CAD-CAM workflow you would use for a standard CNC machine, then cut using the extra fun, hands-on workflow of Compass.
ok, but how’s it work?
For a robot to be able to help you out with woodworking, it’s first got to know what you want it to do to a piece of wood, as well as where this piece of wood is. This robot plops down on any flat surface and determines where it is using four mouse sensors. Your origin is set once you click the button to start your design.
The main magic juice of this whole operation boils down to this sensing technology. Compass uses rigid body dynamics equations to convert the XY movement data from the sensors into a precise location and orientation estimate of the router. This could be done with a minimum of two sensors, but using four sensors gives the system redundancy to minimize error and drift.
Once the robot knows exactly where it is on the workpiece, it’s pretty easy to figure out where it should move the tool to cut the design perfectly.
Compass calculates and recalculates this value thousands of times per second in order to remain on track.
Compass needs to move the cutting tool along OB’ in order to reach the desired point B. See? Easy
As the user, your job is easy. You load your design, set your origin accordingly, and keep the red buttons pressed down to start cutting. The UI panel on the front of the device will tell you exactly where to move the router, and alert you if you’re going too far off track. Compass will do all the rest.
GitHub
GitHub
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