(n)certainties – Columbia – Fall 2008

The next step to modify the script is achieving a 3D shape for the canopy from the Voronoi pattern. The strategy will be to add normal vectors from the vertices of each cell within a range of height and draw curves using the points at the end of these normal lines as control points. Then applying a mesh patch command and offseting the mesh as a solid we will get the canopy in 3D with certain thickness. Drawing lines in plan using the control points of the cells, scaling them, creating a surface from a planar curve and extruding it as a solid we will get several holes in the canopy to generate different porosity conditions.

These are several plans showing how the current script behaves at the moment. Given a cloud of points that are the center of the tires and selecting a starting point, it draws a line which distance is within a range of a maximum and a minimum that you can choose. Then it checks the distance between the end point of this line and the rest of the points finding the closest one. After, it draws a line from the starting one to the last one mentioned and repeats this process creating several generations. You can slecet the number of generations at the begining. When the trajectory is done it draws a curve from this polyline and then it applies the Voronoi command. It draws curves considering the vertices of each Voronoi cell as control points generating areas that will be used as structural piles of tires. In between them tires will be smashed by the robot following the voronoi lines that separate each cell. Some curves are created in between and divided obtaining more points to apply the Voronoi command again generating a more sofisticated pattern for the surface of the canopy generated above.