Last Wednesday, I presented Bengesht and ROS.GH as a communication mechanism between Grasshopper and ROS in 4th Robotics and ROS Meetup at ANYbotics AG, Zurich. Websocket components of Bengesht establish a bi-directional connection with RosBridge node and ROS.GH components can parse the exchanged JSON messages.

Rhino/Grasshopper:

With advanced and easy to use 3D modeling functionalities, Rhino is the primary CAD software between many architects and industrial designers. Built on top of the Rhino API, Grasshopper is a visual programming environment that introduces parametric modeling into Rhino. Watch the beginner tutorial on youtube.

Swatch headquarters in Biel:

Engineered by Design-to-Production GmbH, the newly opened Swatch building in Biel is an excellent example of using computational tools for the generation of complex geometries and fabrication data.

ITECH Reseach Pavilion 2016/17:

Developed at the University of Stuttgart, I worked on ITECH Reseach Pavilion 2016-17 during my master studies. As my initial motivation for developing this communication technique, the research pavilion showcases the Bengesht for the seamless integration of Grasshopper with ROS. We used this package for:

• Real-time visualization of the fabrication process
• Sharing the geometrical data with KUKA robots and UAV (example: winding pin positions, flight path)
• Real-time Path planning (example: alignment of the robotic arm with quadcopter using the infrared camera)

This meetup event was held at ANYbotics company and organized by Giovanni Toffetti (ZHAW) and Péter Fankhauser (ANYbotics).

Resources

• Rhino official website
• Grasshopper3D forum
• Grasshopper: getting started by David Rutten
• Rhino-Grasshopper channel on Youtube
• Bengesht on Food4Rhino
• Bengesht on Github
• Bengesht channel on Vimeo
• ROS.GH on Github
• ROS.GH on RobotWebTools (Rosbridge)
• RosBridge on ROS.ORG
• RosBridge on Github
• ICD website: ITECH Reseach Pavilion 2016-17
• ITKE website: ITECH Reseach Pavilion 2016-17
• Design-to-Production GmbH
• Swatch headquarters in Biel