Exploring voxel-based morphological operators for automatic Lego model construction

Most of the research on automated LEGO construction focus on improving structural strength and stability. These algorithms build the LEGO model directly from the 3D model and perform only very minimal simplication or techniques for model repair beforehand. There are cases however, where 3D models have poor connectivity. Problems present in the structures of these kind of models include holes, gaps, t-junctions, self-intersections and non-manifold structures. Models with poor connectivity are not good geometry models for creating LEGO models, since the parts have to be well connected in order for the model to be strong. There are also times when the user might require a generalization of the shape of the object instead of a very detailed model. This research will focus on exploring different morphological operators in order to address the issues stated above. This research proposes a system which can create perform morphological operations and simplications on a 3D model. The resulting models will then be used to generate a set of instructions for building LEGO models of the original 3D model. Different morphological operators and simplication techniques will be thoroughly analyzed and compared and their effects on the actual LEGO model construction will also be analyzed