It’s fun to run marble runs, but how about if the marbles could be eaten? The answer is gumballs. In this regard, [Adrian Seeley] A system is being developed to automate the production of gumballs for candy and entertainment purposes.
You can code track descriptions by typing the straights, curves and ramps in the correct order. After being created as a JSON, the track description can be processed using Javascript in order to create an OpenSCAD tiled representation, complete with all support structures. The pieces can be 3D-printed to create a gumball run which can be assembled easily.
[Adrian] created a small tabletop “gumcoaster” as a prototype. Even though it was small, the assembly took 11-hours. It was a prototype for a bigger version he wants to build. We’ve seen some great marble runs before too, including those created via procedural generation. After the break, video.