Robot Gimbal for High-Resolution Panoramas

thingiverse

Portable, tripod-mounted, and lightweight gimbal robot for high-resolution spherical panoramas rotates 360° horizontally and 180° vertically covering entire surroundings minus small footprint of circular tripod mount. Can be used for spherical panoramas, gigapixel photography, timelapse photography or DIY pan-head for any small camera. Design goals are low weight and size so it can be used while traveling some compromises were made in that direction. Camera movement is slow this is not real-time stabilization gimbal. Best suited for photos intended to be stitched into very large panoramic images. Camera can be mounted to rotate around its "nodal point" (optical center) both vertically and horizontally to avoid parallax errors causing stitching problems with regular gimbals. Vertical positioning is achieved by rail slide built into unit and horizontally by offset camera mount. This is part of larger project that includes Arduino controller and smartphone control app. Parts needed - 2 x 28BYJ-48 motors - 4 x 688-2RS bearings (8x16x5mm) - https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ZVF8EMU - 1 x 1/4" tripod screw with D or flat head for attaching camera - 1 x 5/8" to 1/4" tripod adapter for tripod mount - both in https://smile.amazon.com/Muscccm-Camera-Tripod-Adapter-Converter/dp/B07BKPXR72 - some grip tape or TPE layer to avoid slippage for tripod and camera mounts Some parameters can be tweaked in Autodesk Fusion 360. The complete Fusion 360 model is at https://a360.co/2ztelQZ (Autodesk short link). There is a load test simulation model there as well it's inaccurate due to materials but insightful nevertheless.