Embedded Files
We built a working 2-axis M&M Printer... in less than two months
Our team of five(Ariana Olson, Anne Ku, Justin Kunimune, Liv Kelley, and I) set out to build an edible art 2D printer for our Principles of Engineering mechatronics class.
Our printer converts a simple input image, such as a Github user logo, into "pixels." It then represents each pixel by dropping M&Ms onto a frosted brownie- edible artwork!
The Gantry
Principles of Engineering encourages students to work within a restricted budget.
We cannibalized the stepper motors and belts from an inkjet printer from our local dump, and lasercut scrap MDF to create the gantry base of our printer. We controlled the motors using an Arduino Uno equipped with an Adafruit motor shield. Using limit switches, we wrote a calibration routine to determine the location of the "extruder" over our dessert.
Our gantry
Solidworks Gantry Assembly
The Extruder
We initially planned to extrude nonpareils to create the edible artwork on our dessert. Despite experimenting with several hopper and dispenser designs, however, it proved too difficult to dispense a single nonpareil.
As a result, we pivoted to printing with M&Ms. The smooth, hard candy coating prevented friction-based breakage, unlike nonpareils, and the relatively larger size of candy made it possible to load "cartridges" of single M&Ms.
Nonpareils
M&Ms
The Software
Our software stack had two major components:
An OpenCV based image converter, which segmented the image and converted it into a bytestream of printer "pixels" to be printed
A motion manager, which converted the desired locations into serial commands for each stepper motor
We ran live demos of our edible art printer for the general public at Olin's Fall 2016 Exposition. Yum!
Project Artifacts
Project Artifacts
YouTube: Prototyping hopper based dispenser
YouTube: Prototyping hopper based dispenser
YouTube: Final Demo Video
YouTube: Final Demo Video
Electrical Diagram
Electrical Diagram
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse