Sigh…editor’s note: I upgraded my KeyShot program from the Educational version to the Professional version. This upgrade changes which version of KeyShot will open the KeyShot package files that I have available for download from this website. For your information, it is my understanding that the Professional version of KeyShot will not open KeyShot package files created by the Educational version, and vice versa.
So, if you download any of the KeyShot package files that I have on this website, and you are also running on your computer the Educational version of KeyShot, then my Keyshot package files available on this website probably will not open. I should note that in the beginning of this website, I had the Educational version of KeyShot and had the website full of KeyShot ksp type package files created with the Educational version of KeyShot. I think I have gone through the website and converted all available KeyShot package files for download into the KeyShot Professional version type. I hope I have anyway.
So if you see on this website, a KeyShot package file that you really want, and you download it from this website, and your KeyShot can’t seem to open it, then this is probably because you are not running a version of the KeyShot program that can open the KeyShot package file that you downloaded from this website. pg
editor’s second note: You will notice that the pistonrobots here do not have arms. The original purpose of the descriptions in this website was to establish that: the pistonrobot was actually a feasible item that if it were created as a real structure that it would work and move as described.
The method chosen to establish that the pistorobot as described would function properly if it were real was to evaluate the pistonrobot by drawing it using a high quality 3D drawing program. The advantages of having the pistonrobot created inside a high quality 3D drawing program include that one can use the 3D drawing program to carefully evaluate all parts to be sure that: 1) no parts existed on top of other parts, and 2) to be sure that all parts, as these parts moved through their desired range of motion, that none of these parts moving through their normal range of motion would run into other parts. This project to prove the robot could be real by creating it in this manner included working inside the 3D drawing program to perform manipulation or moving of a lot of parts. The arms were left off to make the drawing work easier.
I did finally take a year off and I created shoulders and arms (right and left) for the robot, and they too can actually exist as real objects by the criteria described above. Adding these arms to these drawings to allow creation of mp4 videos of robots moving where the robots have arms and legs is a lot of work. I will get to it, but just note that right now the robots walking around in videos do not have arms, but the arms are there to be added. What really needs to be done is to send the full robot over to Autodesk Maya and rig the entire robot. Then it could be moved around with a unbelievable decrease in drawing work. But I am not totally familiar with Maya, so I have not done this rigging yet, it is (of course) also on the timeline.
Here’s the KeyShot v8 package file for the Robot Waving
Download 28mb This is a KeyShot Package file named: Robot in the trees waving right arm from Sketchup v26 robot standing waving right arm v8 (1169 downloads )I also used rendering techniques to create a Claymation style video showing the robot arm doing internal and external rotation at the level of the shoulder. Here’s that video:
You can download this video if you want.
14 mb Download mp4 Internal and External Rotation arm (1659 downloads )Here’s the KeyShot v8 package file that I used to render the images that I stitched together to make this video of arm rotation:
Download 34mb This is a KeyShot package file named: shoulder int ext rotation video colors correct v9 int ext rotation v23 (1735 downloads )I also used this video as a take off point to create a set of minutely detailed videos (each video is kept to be about 5 min long, so there’s a set of videos). I created these videos to show in a slow and detailed manner how I used a “Claymation” type technique to stitch together rendered images of the arm as it was moved through a set of positions in order to make a finished video of arm motion. I haven’t completed all the videos yet.
Of note, I decided I would include in this set of instructional videos also a slow detailed description of how the sensory system of the robot will work.
So, if you decide to watch these videos, you will note that they start out with some overall discussion of the robot moving and the arms and the ranges of motions of the arms. Then the videos begin to describe and outline how exactly the central processing microelectronics of the robot will be able to obtain the positional information about the pistons of the robot. The robot’s various motions are all created by having the various pistons of the robot to either extend or retract.
The whole overall concept of the pistonrobot is that the actions of extension and/or retraction a piston or a set of pistons has the result of moving the various parts of the pistonrobot. It seemed reasonable to me that people would want to know how did I take a 3D drawing file of a robot’s arm and use that 3D drawing file to make a video of that arm moving.
But I wanted to take a lateral motion first to describe how does the robot’s CPU electronics “know” where are the various parts of the robot. I’m sure one can understand that this rotation motion of the arm that is demonstrated in the video could not occur properly if the CPU microelectronics controlling the robot’s motions were unable to update their knowledge base about where are the various parts of the robot located.
I did create all of these instructional videos as small size, they all individually run for about 5 minutes, at the end of 5 minutes, I just stopped the video, saved it, and proceeded to create the next video in the series. I also uploaded these instructional videos to my YouTube channel.
Here’s the webpage where I added this discussion: Pistonrobot webpage with Instructional Videos about robot arm rotation
Hope springs eternal…. pg
I discuss the topic of the Pistonrobot videos and the topic of KeyShot Package files in more detail in another page at the website, if you want to read this page, then its link is:
Design Considerations for the Power Source of the Pistonrobot
KeyShot Package files are special compressed data-image files that are created by the program KeyShot. The purpose of KeyShot package files is that these package files contain all that is needed for a KeyShot program to open a KeyShot file that KeyShot can then render to create images. This means that the package files contain the basic information for rendering, but they also include all the other information that is needed such as camera types, camera positions, lighting, materials, resources, etc. So, many times these KeyShot package files can be large 30-300 mb because they contain so much information.
For those of you who have KeyShot and you want to see how the Pistonrobot videos were put together, at least for the portion where individual images of the robot were rendered, then you can download these ksp files.
If you want to try this KeyShot Package file activity just to see how it works, without needing to wait through a long download, then I recommend download this file (it’s about 2mb):
Download 2mb KeyShot Package file Floor only from v31 (1275 downloads )The imagery of this Floor related ksp file is not very complex, which means that the ksp file is not very large (about 1.3 mb), so it should be a quick download.
Of note, I plan to put in the Free Downloads – Images area, higher resolution versions of the thumbnails below that show these KeyShot files
I created the floor above as a sort of technical floor to demonstrate robot walking and to show how the stances and strides look with reference to a floor with rectangles. I created below a more beautiful floor that is more like a runway effect to show off woodgrain and highlight the robot legs and feet.
Download 63mb This is a KeyShot Package file named: right turn off left foot from v17 (507 downloads )Note: This is a brief discussion of Robot Walking because I feel I need to add this brief explanation about walking so that people can understand what is being demonstrated by these KeyShot package files about walking stances. I discuss Robot Walking and the stances and cycling of stances in more detail elsewhere in this website.
I thought here I would put in some KeyShot package files on the topic of the Robot Walking. I considered walking in humans, because I gave the Pistonrobot the articulations and proportions of a human and gave the robot the ranges of motions of its joints that are very close to the ranges of motions of humans. In fact, the whole principle of the Pistonrobot is that its motion will be very much more like human motion than currently available robots. And the structural principle that allows this feature is that its ranges of motion for its joints, and its proportions and articulations are like humans. And the final point was that I had the opinion that the power source for moving the robot’s structural members would need to be piston type motion because rotary encoded electric motor type motions cannot duplicate the motions of humans in any reasonable manner.
So I thought about human walking and decided human walking can be divided into walking in a straight line or walking in a manner to make a turn.
I consider walking to be a cycling of motions where the same set of motions are repeated in a cycle in a step by step fashion. I decided to divide these motions into 22 separate stances. The first activity of the stances is for the Robot to bring itself from a stable just standing there un-moving stance into the set of stances involved in walking along. I gave number values to the various stances. Stances 01 and 02 are the two stances that move the Robot from standing stable and still into the Robot walking. Because of this, the walking stances that represent a stable cycle of walking along will cycle from stance 03 to stance 22, then after stance 22, the robot moves to stance 03 and the cycle repeats. This package file below demonstrates the stances of straight line walking.
The real set of stances are very close together and this makes them hard to really study well, so I simply copied the stances, spread them out, and moved them to the side so they can be seen.
I decided the stances of turning must be more carefully considered. I feel the mechanism of walking (both straight line walking and walking as a turn) in humans and the pistonrobot is that one foot is “unweighted” by transferring all of the weight to the other foot. Then this “unweighted” foot and leg can be moved forward. I decided with turning there can be 4 types of turns with humans and the robot.
I felt, for example, the process of turning the walking sequence of stances to the left includes that (for example) the right foot is brought forward, and all the weight is transferred to it. Then the robot (or human) begins a rotation process of the body and pelvis and thorax and unweighted leg and foot to the left. Since the right foot is bearing all the weight for this time in the sequence when the turning begins, then I called this a “Left Turn off the Right Foot.” The other method to achieve a turn to the left is to begin the body, pelvis, unweighted leg turning motion at a time where the weight of the body is supported by the left leg. I decided to call this turn a “Left Turn off the Left Foot.”
Of course, there will be the mirror image of these two turns, which would then be (I decided) called a “Right Turn off the Left Foot,” and a “Right Turn off the Right Foot.”
Thus there being, in my opinion, 4 different types of turning sequences for humans and pistonrobots as they turn while walking.
The KeyShot package files shown below demonstrate two of these methods of turning. They demonstrate a “Right Turn off the Right Foot” and a “Right Turn off the Left Foot.”
These next two KeyShot package files demonstrate the mirror image stance sequencing with respect to walking into a turning cycle from the two turning related sequences above. I gave these two mirror image stance patterns for turning the following names: “Left Turn off Left Foot,” and “Left Turn off Right Foot.”
Here’s KeyShot Package file where I placed some robots on the figure of eight floor where the robots are doing the walking in a straight line cycle, (there are 2 cycles of this straight line walking shown) and I also placed some robots doing a cycle of left turn off off right foot. I didn’t add an image rendering from this package file, but I feel you have seen enough here that you could do a rendering if you wanted.
Download 210mb This is a KeyShot Package file named: resave for Keyshot v8 Set 11 - Set 17 straight plus L off R v18 (1012 downloads )
You must be logged in to post a comment.