This Five-Axis Robot Can Carve Photos Into Pumpkins
Inventor Shane Wighton of Stuff Made Here was first discovered due to his barber robot that he used to cut his own hair while sitting immobile in the middle of a room. At the time, people said that he was lucky that his robot did not carve his face.
This gave Wighton the idea of creating a robot that actually carved photos into pumpkins. This robot used the same electronics as the barber robot but was a lot more complex. It had a swiveling spindle with two sets of aluminum extrusions for vertical and horizontal movements
"I've never seen anyone make a custom-made machine to carve a pumpkin. Probably cause it's a really dumb thing but I love dumb stuff," said Wighton. The most challenging part was getting the software to translate the images into something that can be carved on a 2D surface.
What software does Wighton use to make his pumpkin carving robot? How well does it work? How realistic are the final products? How true are they to the real images? The video answers all these questions and more and shows you the pumpkin carving robot in action just in time for Halloween!