Reconfigurable three-dimensional prototype system using digital materials

Abstract

Digital materials are discrete elements such as LEGO Blocks that it can be a kind of reconfigurable 3D matters. There are two advantages of using digital material rather than a continuous material. Firstly, it is easy to change the form after shaping by assembling and disassembling the elements. Secondly, There is never that the error of the part impacts the whole form in the shaping because the elements can be connected exactly by the joint system. There are many researches of digital material focus on the modular connection by press fitting or bonding. Such a digital material can't be assembled and disassembled smoothly after shaped. In our research, we designed the digital material "Kelvin Block" (figure 1a) that specialized in smoothly reconfiguring, and we developed the machine "3D Assembler" (figure 1b) to arrange Kelvin Blocks automatically. The size of Kelvin Block is 40mmx40mmx40mm that is optimized to the volume of the joint system.