Surface Approximation by molding a shape-memory polymer on a modular robot

International audience; The design phase of a car development is a long and tedious process that requires a lot of trial and error. In this article we introduce a new concept aiming to make this process easier and more interactive. Our solution consist in using a modular robot together with a shape memory polymer in order to create an interactive model of a car piece. We came up with an algorithm to approximate the surface of a piece using NURBS to describe the shape and the resulting molded polymer is simulated on our simulator VisibleSim, proving the accuracy of our system.