PANOBOT: A Panorama robot, version 1

Panobot is a full automatic robot, which can be used to create Panoramas and Gigapixels with small and large cameras (like DSLRs). The camera is mounted on a turret to allow pan/tilt motion. After programming the capture parameters, the robot will start to rotate the camera, taking one (or multiple) pictures per position and making sure that the capture positions have enough overlap.

This is a Panorama Robot created to hold large cameras, like DSLRs, with big telephoto lenses. I'm using this bot to create panoramas and Gigapixels with my Canon 80D DSLR and have used lenses up to 600mm.

Panobot has the following menu features:

• Scan
  • starts a Scan
• Sphere
  • starts a 360x180 scan
• Take picture
  • allows to manually take a picture, this is usefull for testing the camera trigger connection
• Setup
  • Pan Left, Pan Right, Tilt Up, Tilt Down
    • defines the scan area of the panorama/gigapixel, the head will move while the range is defined
  • Image P-Delay
    • the longer, the more time the camera has to measure and (eventually focus, if not in manual camera mode), triggers focusing of camera
  • Image Delay
    • the delay it take for the camera to write the image to the card and/or the time it needs to stabilize the mechanical system due to rotating motion
  • Shutter Delay
    • how long the shutter will be pressed
  • Focal Length
    • the focal length which is currently by the camera
  • Horizontal& Vertical Overlap
    • defines the overlap between consecutive images, a value between 30% and 50% makes sense, usually depends on the capture situation
  • Crop factor
    • in combination with the focal length, can be used to calculate field of view, which is required for horizontal&vertical overlap

Required Hardware:

• 3d printed parts

  • 1 central_gear
  • print a mount for your tripod, this connects central gear and tripod - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2764632
  • 1x drivegear
  • 1x panobot-pan-bottom
  • 1x panobot-pan-top
  • 2x pantiltconnector_print
  • 2x tiltsteppermount_print
  • 1x tiltsidesteppergear
  • 1x panobot-variable-tiltbase-side
  • 1x panobot-variable-tiltbase-drivenside
  • 2x panobot-variable-tiltbase-inner-2x OR 2x panobot-variable-tiltbase-inner-2x-large
  • print 1x panobot_tilt_spacer.stl
  • print a case for the LCD - go to https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:87250 and print the following parts:
    • 1x https://www.thingiverse.com/download:195365 (Bottom Case with Pockets)
    • 1x https://www.thingiverse.com/download:195366 (Top Case)
    • 1x https://www.thingiverse.com/download:195440 (Controller Knob)
    • 1x https://www.thingiverse.com/download:887992 (Kill Button)
    • 1x panobot-lcd-clamp.stl (2 parts inside)
  • print the case for the panobot electronic
    • print 1x electronic-case-bottom.stl
    • print 1x electronic-case-top-4040fan.stl xor 1x electronic_case_top-5050fan.stl
    • print 1x electronic-case-pcb-clamps.stl (3 parts inside the stl)

• print a mount for your camera, choose one of the two variants

  • variant 1:
    • print 1x camquickmount.stl
    • print 2x quickmountclamp.stl
  • variant 2 (better, improved version):
    • print 1x panobot_tilt_base_mount.stl
  • I also recommend to buy one of these mounts Camera Tripod Aluminum Quick Release Plate, which fit nicely on the printed mounts

• mechanical parts

  • some screws, washers, nuts M3, M4
  • some bearings 608
  • rods 8mm ( Pan: 2x210mm, Tilt: 2x200mm, Pan/Tilt: 4x120mm)

• electronic parts

  • a complete list of required parts and instructions can be found on Panobot Github Wiki

Required Software:

• install atom editor
  • https://atom.io/ -> install deb
• follow steps on http://platformio.org/get-started/ide?install=atom
  • install platformio-ide package inside atom
• code completion
  • apt-get install clang

Everything can be found in my github Repository: http://github.com/RobertFach/panobot.git

Finally, here are some examples of the panoramas that I have created with this machine: Norway:

• http://www.gigapan.com/gigapans/210788
• http://www.gigapan.com/gigapans/210792
• http://gigapan.com/gigapans/210796 Denmark:
• http://www.gigapan.com/gigapans/201613 (1.2 Gigapixel)
• http://www.gigapan.com/gigapans/201533 (360 degree, 400 Megapixel)
• http://www.gigapan.com/gigapans/201669 (360x180degree spherical image, 300 Megapixel)

An this is a video of a running capture... https://vimeo.com/264560924 (Current Version), there's also an older version which shows more or less a very early version ... https://vimeo.com/231263998