3D scanning of motorcycle engines with ARTEC Spider robot arm

If in the past, to design a new product, you had to take measurements of complex sample details or automation at production facilities took from days to weeks to complete, but now with the ARTEC 3D scanning technology, this time is significantly shortened to just a few hours or even a few minutes extremely quickly. You can use a 3D scanner with any sample object. The 3D model results can then be exported to a variety of CAD & CAM programs to edit and modify the design, to increase product performance or to integrate it into new products.

Scanning motorcycle engines with the ARTEC Spider robot arm is one of ARTEC’s outstanding technology applications. Although the ARTEC  scanner is designed for handheld scanning, the customer believes that the ARTEC handheld scanner can integrate well with the robotic system.

One of the recent examples is the successful construction of an automatic scanning system with an ARTEC handheld scanner attached to a Robot arm appearing in the video below, provided by NorNet company. Recently, they purchased a Spider scanner to digitize artifacts on display at the museum, such as wood and plaster carvings and car parts that are not commercially available. The 3D model of the scanned objects can then be recreated using a 3D printer or CNC machine.

To do this, NorNet put the scanner to the test, mounting it on a robot arm, the Universal Robot 5 (UR5), which according to NorNet will be easy to use and safe for users. For example, if this robot touches an object, it will stop. “I have a lot of things to scan. The idea is to automate the 3D scanning process,” said Nornet head Ben-Tommy Eriksen. “I chose ARTEC Spider because of its high resolution, it can scan small details on wood surfaces and give perfect scanning results.”

To automate the scanning process, Erikson used an old motorcycle engine with holes and curves. The motor is placed on a rotating platform and the Spider scanner is fixed to the Robot arm to move around the scanned sample. Erikson was really pleased with the results: “Automating the handheld scanner provides excellent working results.”