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Robot Arm

Axibo’s motion control robot arm jib costs less than $10,000

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As well as showing off the Axibo PT4 motion control pan-tilt head and slider, the company was also exhibiting their upcoming E-Jib Mini. Well, technically, they were exhibiting a prototype, hoping to get feedback from visitors at the show to finalise some details and get it prepared for final readiness to go on sale. The E-Jib Mini is a low-cost alternative to the massively expensive motion control robot systems on the market.

It works in conjunction with the PT4 in order to provide a full six axes of movement for your camera when working with virtual productions. But it also allows all of the usual motion control capabilities, too, such as repeat movements and timelapse. There is a page with some basic info on the Axibo website, but we had a chat with Axibo CEO Anoop Gadhrri at NAB 2023 to learn more.

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Axibo’s camera robot costs less than $3,000

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Robots have fascinated mankind for decades. For those of us that grew up in the 80s and 90s, our introduction to robots was probably Johnny 5 and we’ve been obsessed with them ever since. Growing up to become a photographer or filmmaker, robots we can attach cameras to are the ultimate tool and toy. One camera robot in particular on the Axibo stand at NAB 2023 stood out to us.

So, we stopped by to have a chat with Axibo CEO Anoop Gadhrri to learn more about it and the company itself. Founded about a year and a half ago, the company’s goal is to democratise cinema robotics. They want to give advanced robot capabilities, including virtual production, to filmmakers on much lower budgets than the typical Hollywood solutions.

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The OS-ARM is a 3D printed open source multi-axis robot arm designed for use with cameras

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Putting cameras on robot arms is not a new idea. We’ve seen it done plenty of times by folks like Steve Giralt and the Slow Mo Guys. But it’s not exactly a cheap venture. Even very basic robot arms can cost a few grand and when you’re looking at the Bolt arms used by Steve and the Slow Mo Guys, you’re getting up into the tens of thousands. But this open source project from Andrew Degonge at 3DprintedLife plans to change that.

he’s been working on a project called OS-ARM. It’s a 3D printable low cost, high performance motion control robot arm. At least, that’s the plan when it’s finished. Its project goals are to have 6 axes (it currently has 5), smooth, repeatable motion, support a 1kg payload, be easy to produce and cost less than $500 in materials. It’s still in development, but as you can see in the video above, it’s already come a long way.

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Slow Mo Guys team up with Steve Giralt to film super fast robots in super slow motion

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I wondered how long it’d be before these two did some kind of collaboration and now it’s finally here. We’re big fans of The Slow Mo Guys here at DIYP, who use Phantom cameras to show us events recorded in super slow motion, letting us see new things that our eyes simply aren’t capable of spotting in real-time. As well as the obvious visual appeal, the insights into physics and how things work is just fascinating.

Somebody else we’re big fans of is Steve Giralt. We’ve featured Steve’s work on DIYP a number of times. He also shoots slow motion with Phantom cameras, but he mounts them onto the end of super fast Bolt robot arms for commercial work. Gav from The Slow Mo Guys visited Steve and his team in New York to see how the whole system works and to create some pretty epic slow-motion shots.

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How to blend time with motion control from planning to post production

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Motion control is one of the most fascinating topics of photography and filmmaking for me. It combines several of my favourite subjects. Photography, electronics, engineering and programming. Motion control allows us to create some amazing imagery that just wouldn’t be possible in any other way. It also allows us to do it over and over again consistently.

That’s what drew YouTube channel Media Division to motion control and The Marmalade production house to record their new video intro. Consistency and repeatability. Their goal was to create a composite clip, shot with a moving camera, blending four different speeds of footage from real-time to 25% speed seamlessly.

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