1. Personal and ubiquitous robotics
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2. Robots everywhere for everyone
“No need to build good robots”
Jason O'Kane
We need to build bad robots
simple functionality
negligible robustness
limited reliability
Any automation is better than no automation
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3. Application space Unspecified problems Constrained resources
Home automation
Personal assistance
Custom orthotics
Research tools
Prototyping
Education
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4. A circuit analogy ASIC: Fully specified design from ground up
Digital standard cells? Breadboards?
FPGA / SOC: Single all-purpose device
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5. User-driven robotics
Enable the on-demand creation of custom printable electromechanical systems
Design intuitively
Fabricate inexpensively
Control autonomously
Iterate rapidly
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6. Pervasive personal robotics
“There’s a robot for that.”
Ubiquitous
Broad userbase
Diverse functionality
Personal
Application specific
On demand
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7. User-in-the-loop design automation
Questions
Design
Answers
Questions
Design
Answers
Specification
Design
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8. Robot compiler vision
Autonomously design, manufacture, and control robotic systems from a high-level task specification
Big picture goal:
$ vim myrobot.rbt
“I want a robot to play chess with me”
$ make myrobot
Parsing specification …done.
Determining behaviors …done.
Generating mechanisms …done.
Assembling components …done.
Printing …done.
Success!
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9. A world full of robots? Design systems (c.f. app engines, EDA)
High level definition (Domain specific languages)
Printable manufacturable designs
Full-stack verification, validation, and optimization?
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10. A world full of robots? Hardware Integrated manufacturing tools
Structures
Circuits
Sensors and actuators
Components and building blocks
Processing
Communications
Control
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11. A world full of robots Algorithms and applications Control Systems
Distributed
Underactuated
Secure / fault tolerant
Systems
Application-aware integration
Human interfacing
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12. Software-defined hardware
Structural building blocks
Software building blocks
Electrical building blocks
UI elements
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13. Common object-oriented interface
Component Library
Sub-
components
Parameter
constraints
Input parameters
Exposed interfaces
Composition algorithms
Components generated from the composition of modules can be encapsulated with the same modular API, allowing us to recursively build up ever more complex structures, defining new higher-order components from the modular composition of lower order components. The composition algorithms now include constraining subcomponent parameters based on port connectivity, ensuring that designs assembled from valid subcomponents are consistent and therefore also valid.
Implementation algorithms
Fabricable specifications
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14. Hierarchical composition algorithms
We can go further and use the fact that the modules across the various subsystems all use a common API, and thereby allow users to simply and intuitively assemble integrated electromechanical mechanisms. In this case, we can design a controlled, mounted motor by connecting the mechanical mounting interface of a servomotor device to a face of a mechanical beam, then connecting the electrical input of that motor through a firmware driver to a UI widget. This new assembly can in turn be used in higher order designs, connecting the mechanical output of the motor to a beam through a four bar linkage to create a controlled, actuated, moving leg.
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15. Co-design implementation
Robot creation pipeline
Functional
decomposition
Structural
constraints
Behavioral
constraints
Input: Functional specification
Output: Mission accomplished!
Modular composition
Structural
specification
Co-design implementation 2x
Parameterized
model
Realization
Fully specified
design
Fabrication
Operation
Robot
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16. Custom on-demand robots!
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17. Integrated single-chip robot?
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18. UCLA Laboratory for Embedded Machines and Ubiquitous Robots
Electromechanical design automation
Integrated electromechanical manufacturing
Wireless communication circuits and protocols
Distributed sensing, actuation, and control
Robotics in education
Obligatory plugs – I'm looking for:
Research collaborators
Talented postdocs
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19. Internet of things (and robots)
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20. Motivational quotes The perfect is the enemy of the good Just do it
Move fast and break things
If at first you don't succeed, try try again
We'll fix it in post
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