Hi guys,

In this post I’d like to introduce you a new plugin for Softimage that I developed as part of my research. The nature of the plugin is more for engineers so it may not be so interesting for artists, but in all cases it is a Softimage plugin so I think this is a good place to announce it.

The name of the plugin is Intelligent Construction Equipment Planner or for short (ICE-Planner - sorry for the confusing title with the Interactive Creative Env of Softimage). As the name reflects, this plugin is mainly developed for planning the motion of construction equipment in 3D simulated environments. As a result, the equipment will be able to do its work as an autonomous robot. This is useful for doing construction tasks in hazard environment (space, mining, ... etc.)
Currently the results are only applied on the equipment 3D model in Softimage. However I’m considering interfacing it with hardware as part of my future work.

To get more details about the plugin and see videos of it working in action:
http://inframez.com/hbahnassi/iceplanner/

Thank you,
Homam

Homam Bahnassi
3D Technical Artist - EA Montreal
http://www.agdn-online.com - Arabic Game Developer Network

Well...this is insane o.O
Thanks for this tool..it seems a hell lot of work!
Seems very powerful and flexible..I’ll take a look :D

Btw i dont know if you wanted to share it but i cant find where to download the .addon!

Thanks again, and great work!

Thanks for your encouraging words. Regarding sharing the addon, this could be complicated at the moment since it is still part of an active research in the university. Currently, only the prototype of visualizing the core algorithm is available for download:

http://www.inframez.com/hbahnassi/rrtvisualizer/

It is developed using the Interactive Creative Env in Softimage.

Homam Bahnassi
3D Technical Artist - EA Montreal
http://www.agdn-online.com - Arabic Game Developer Network