A Compiler for Printable Robots Ankur Mehta PPR meeting April 14, 2014

… in collaboration with Daniela Rus Erik Demaine, Marty Demaine Byoungkwon An, Nicola Bezzo, Joe DelPreto, Peter Gebhard, Cindy Sung Vincent Lee, Roger Lo, Ben Shaya November 5, 2017 Ankur Mehta

Motivation Allow non-experts to design and manufacture custom engineered robots Employ inexpensive fabrication techniques Simplify and streamline the design process Enable rapid design iteration Design a “robot compiler” to design printable electromechanical systems from specifications November 5, 2017 Ankur Mehta

Robot compilers Vision: Big picture goal: Autonomously co-generate mechanical, electrical, and software subsystem designs for personal robots Big picture goal: $ vim myrobot.rbt “I want a robot to cook breakfast for me” $ make myrobot Parsing specification …done. Determining behaviors …done. Generating mechanisms …done. Assembling components …done. Printing …done. Success! November 5, 2017 Ankur Mehta

Let’s make some robots! < video > November 5, 2017 Ankur Mehta

Library of components Mechanical building blocks Mechanical assemblies Electrical building blocks Electromechanical mechanisms November 5, 2017 Ankur Mehta

Library of components November 5, 2017 Ankur Mehta

Hierarchical design November 5, 2017 Ankur Mehta

Real world example Request: “We need a robot with two rotating joints in series, rotating about the vertical axis. Each link is around 10cm. In ascii art form it is: |---------------|------------t where | is a rotational axis, and t is the tool.” “rotating joint”  ActuatedHinge “link”  Beam “the tool”  ActuatedGripper November 5, 2017 Ankur Mehta

Database driven ecosystem Composition Generation Python scripting engine Python scripting engine Parametrized component database Other tools ROSLab 2D / 3D CAD tools MATLAB Other tools Robots! Realization Python scripting engine Other tools ROSLab November 5, 2017 Ankur Mehta

Modular composition User selects desired geometries with degrees of freedom and their ranges. Standard user: assembles building blocks (GUI) Expert user: can generate building blocks (Python) November 5, 2017 Ankur Mehta

Robot creation process < video > November 5, 2017 Ankur Mehta

Component representation { Subcomponents } Special case: EComponent { Parameters } { Connections } Inherited by default Can be altered by imposing constraints Assembly instructions November 5, 2017 Ankur Mehta

Mechanical representation November 5, 2017 Ankur Mehta

Electronics - Hardware Connect modules in chains Unlimited number of devices Devices easily distributed across robot Easy to wire Virtual pin numbers Each device assigned a virtual pin Users do not need to know about chain structure Can view brain as giant microcontroller Facilitates automatic composition Facilitates auto-generation of software November 5, 2017 Ankur Mehta

Electronics - Hardware Modularize electrical system to mirror mechanical approach Facilitates automatic layout and design Electrical modules Interface between brain and devices Only need one signal wire – simplifies routing 3 general purpose inputs/outputs Servos, LEDs, sensors, etc. ATtiny Microcontroller Code does not change based on attached devices or robot November 5, 2017 Ankur Mehta

Electronics - Software Android app automatically generates User Interface Asks robot for description of devices via Bluetooth Also includes graphical interfaces User can wirelessly control robot without writing code November 5, 2017 Ankur Mehta

Next steps $ vim myrobot.rbt Come up with more robot ideas $ make myrobot Parsing specification …done. Determining behaviors …done. Define specification languages Translate between functional and structural specifications Generating mechanisms …done. Recommend mechanisms and parameters Assembling components …done. Automate component-level design decisions Optimize assembly Simulate and verify designs Printing …done. Expand fabrication capabilities Success! November 5, 2017 Ankur Mehta