Described by NIC Instruments Limited, its manufacturer, as a Modular Unmanned Ground Vehicle, light weight, portable and flexible. In its basic configuration it weighs around 40 Kg, it is 770 mm long with the arm folded and 465 mm wide. The three part arm is completely articulated and ends with gripping claw with its own camera. The arm can extend up to 1460 mm from the vehicle. The Zeus has a top speed of three Kph, an 800 m operating range and a two-to-four hour mission length.
I've been learning to use Blender to build 3D computer graphics models since August 2013 and I decided to create this blog as a progress report and a portfolio.
Friday, 4 November 2022
Friday, 23 September 2022
David White LT 8300 Theodolite
The theodolite was developed in the 18th century to provide very accurate location of points in space, an essential tool for surveying and mapping. Wikipedia has a comprehensive article on theodolites history and use. This model is based on the David Whites Instrument Company’s LT 8300 model, probably made in the late 1930s by the company in Milwaukee, WI, USA.
#teodolite #level_transit #surveying #Blender Cycles
Friday, 9 September 2022
Pendulum Wall clock
This model is based on Brian Law’s Clock 9 plans: https://www.woodenclocks.co.uk/. I’ve made it before, but I wanted to try the project again with more experience and more advanced Blender software. While I’ve followed the plans fairly closely, I have used some artistic license and made some mechanical changes. In this animation, the model clock is running much faster than a real one would. At real clock speeds the movement of the minute hand wouldn’t be visible.
Friday, 2 September 2022
Mechanical Clock
This model is based on Brian Law’s Clock 9 plans: https://www.woodenclocks.co.uk/. I’ve made it before, but I wanted to try the project again with more experience and more advanced Blender software. While I’ve followed the plans fairly closely, I have used some artistic license and made some mechanical changes. The next step will be animating the clock.
Thursday, 11 August 2022
Orrery
I’ve been thinking about building a vertual orrery for a couple of years, but couldn’t quite imagine how it would work. Until, that is, l I saw Ken Condal’s videos: Building an Orrery. Orreries are mechanical models of celestial bodies, most often of the solar system, in this case the earth, moon, sun and the other planets out to Saturn. In this model the relative sizes of the planets and moon are accurate and their relative orbital periods are close to real. Except for the Earth, I used NASA photos of each body’s surface. The blue stationary gear is an earth year calendar showing the position of the earth and moon on any given day. My virtual model differs from Condal’s real one in some details; particularly I imagined the machine to be driven by a wind-up spring drive instead of a direct crank.
#orrery #Ken_Condal #Solar_system
Tuesday, 19 July 2022
1867 Hugon Gas Engine
In 1867 Pierre Hugon of
Paris, France, was awarded a U.S. Patent for an internal combustion, standing
engine,his “gas engine”. The engine measured 1.6 X 2.3 X 1.1 meters and weighed
over 1000kg. This model is based on photos of engines made by licensee Edward Casper in London, England displayed in the Science
Museum, London, and the Anson Engine Museum, Poynton, Cheshire.
#engine #gas #internal #combustion #Anson #Science #Blender #Cycles
Thursday, 7 July 2022
Vintage Singer Sewing Machine
I like machines, especially machines from the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries. It’s fun to find out how they work learn about their history. This project depicts a Singer treadle powered sewing machine made from the 1890s to the 1920s. Many of these Singer machines were extravagantly decorated filigree, floral designs. (I’ve been deliberately more modest with this model.) The Singer Manufacturing Company was founded in New York City by Isaac Singer and Edward Clark in 1851. Both domestic and international demand for the machines was so great that the company opened a factory in Glasgow, Scotland in 1867 that grew eventually to become the largest sewing machine producer in the world.
#Singer #sewing_machine #antique #Blender #Cycles