[Max Lobovsky]

Originally Posted by ChrisH

If somebody can generate a "point cloud" of the surfaces of one of the current sitcks, inside and out, I'm pretty sure I can reverse engineer them well enough to create a mirror image model and then turn that into a part. You would have to put all the buttons and such back together yourself though.

A point cloud is a collection of points that represent a surface or surfaces. They are often used in reverse engineering or to translate the designer's hand shaped prototype into a CAD model. I have access to the equipment to build the prototype and CAD. But I do not have access to the sort of scanning equipment required to generate the point cloud. If somebody out there does, and is willing to work co-operatively, then we can solve this problem. If the demand is really high, like 50 or more teams wanting left-handed sticks, then I might just take ours apart and pay somebody to generate the cloud. With some of the laser systems out there, it would just take a few minutes. But if I have to do that, then I will of course require some small compensation.

I have been planning to pursue this anyway, but while the time you can spend working on your robot is limited, the time to work on your OI is not (unless I missed something in the rules). So I have filed this effort under "things to do after the robot ships".

I'm pretty sure you could make an accurate (enough) model with a pair of calipers and 3d studio max. How are you planning to turn the mesh into a part? Some sort of rapid prototyping machine?