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From: lindsay@k.gp.cs.cmu.edu (Donald Lindsay)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Re: Giant plotter at MIT
Message-ID: <1219@k.gp.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: Thu, 10-Sep-87 12:17:03 EDT
Article-I.D.: k.1219
Posted: Thu Sep 10 12:17:03 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 12-Sep-87 11:02:29 EDT
References: <17173@glacier.STANFORD.EDU>
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI
Lines: 22
Keywords: big

In article <17173@glacier.STANFORD.EDU> jbn@glacier.STANFORD.EDU (John B. Nagle) writes:
>     I have just heard that someone at MIT has constructed a 36' by 44'
>plotter for making large murals.  

The ultimate pen plotter would be a "turtle" robot, with high precision
navigation. One would put several beacons nearby - ultrasonic, radio,
laser, whatever - and as long as the robot could determine its position
to within a line width, you have a "plotter" of practically unlimited
size. It might even be cheap, since it would depend more on electronic 
precision than on mechanical precision.

A simpler and smaller one would use a (relatively) trivial imaging
system, and look down. A very large light table is just a matter of
hiring a carpenter and an electrician (or a student). Large plastic
sheets can be purchased that are printed with grid lines, and that
have low thermal creep (etc). The navigation software now merely
counts grid transitions.

Of course, a pen plotter may not be what the world is waiting for.

-- 
	Don		lindsay@k.gp.cs.cmu.edu    CMU Computer Science