Custom robots on demand

If you could quickly design, print, and control your very own robot whenever you wanted, what would you make?

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The Robot Compiler takes a step towards realizing the vision of personal robots that has captured imaginations for decades. It allows non-engineering users to rapidly fabricate customized robots, facilitating the proliferation of robots in everyday life.

Personalized on-demand robots have a vast potential to impact daily life and change how people interact with technology, but so far this potential has remained largely untapped. Building robots is typically restricted to experts due to the extensive knowledge, experience, and resources required. The Robot Compiler aims to remove these barriers with an end-to-end system for intuitively designing robots from high-level specifications. By describing an envisioned structure or behavior, casual users can immediately build and use a robot for their task.

Robot kiosk for rapidly generating on-demand robots

A person can design their robot by combining parts from a library of customizable modular robot building blocks such as legs, grippers, or bodies. The system automatically processes this design to generate an electrical layout, a foldable pattern to print or cut, Arduino code with an API for programming behaviors, and an Android app that can immediately control the robot. The person could also specify desired behavior using structured English, which will be automatically parsed and implemented in the generated Arduino code. Using this system, the user can go from an idea to a fully operational origami robot in a matter of hours. Do you want a robot to play with your cat? Follow lines on your floor? Fetch a lost item under the couch? Just design it, fold it, and use it in no time. Want to make some changes or build a new robot? Just unfold it and reuse the parts!

The SEG robot featured above was the first-place winner in the African Robotics Network (AFRON) Ultra-Affordable Robot competition. More information about the robot and how to build your own is here.

This system encourages users to treat robots for physical tasks as they would treat software for computational tasks. By simplifying the design process and fostering an iterative approach, it moves towards the proliferation of on-demand custom robots that can address applications including education, healthcare, disaster aid, and everyday life. Instead of saying “there’s an app for that” when confronted with a computational task, we should start thinking “there’s a bot for that” when confronted with a physical task.

Generated robots

Automatically generated custom origami robots — The Robot Compiler enables anyone to quickly design and create a wide variety of custom on-demand origami robots. Photo: Joseph DelPreto, MIT CSAIL

Crawling ant

Arm with gripper and LEDs

Line-following vehicle: autonomous behavior using block programming

Line-following vehicle: more complex autonomous behavior using structured English programming

Origami line-follower using state machines

Origami line-follower using state machines - design

Wheeled vehicle with buzzer and LEDs

Wheeled paper vehicle with LEDs

Publications

2016

J. DelPreto, “Let’s make robots! Automated co-generation of electromechanical devices from user specifications using a modular robot library,” Master Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 2016.
[BibTeX] [Abstract] [Download PDF]

Personalized on-demand robots have a vast potential to impact daily life and change how people interact with technology, but so far this potential has remained largely untapped. Building robots is typically restricted to experts due to the extensive knowledge, experience, and resources required. This thesis aims to remove these barriers with an end-to-end system for intuitively designing robots from high-level specifications. By describing an envisioned structure or behavior, casual users can immediately build and use a robot for their task. The presented work encourages users to treat robots for physical tasks as they would treat software for computational tasks. By simplifying the design process and fostering an iterative approach, it moves towards the proliferation of on-demand custom robots that can address applications including education, healthcare, disaster aid, and everyday life. Users can intuitively compose modular components from an integrated library into complex electromechanical devices. The system provides design feedback, performs verification, makes any required modifications, and then co-designs the underlying subsystems to generate wiring instructions, mechanical drawings, microcontroller code for autonomous behavior, and user interface software. The current work features printable origami-inspired foldable robots as well as general electromechanical devices, and is extensible to many fabrication techniques. Building upon this foundation, tools are provided that allow users to describe functionality rather than structure, simulate robot systems, and explore design spaces to achieve behavioral guarantees. The presented system allows non-engineering users to rapidly fabricate customized robots, facilitating the proliferation of robots in everyday life. It thereby marks an important step towards the realization of personal robots that have captured imaginations for decades.

@mastersthesis{delpreto2016letsmakerobots,
title={Let's make robots! Automated co-generation of electromechanical devices from user specifications using a modular robot library},
author={DelPreto, Joseph},
year={2016},
month={February},
school={Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)},
address={Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)},
url={http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/103672},
abstract={Personalized on-demand robots have a vast potential to impact daily life and change how people interact with technology, but so far this potential has remained largely untapped. Building robots is typically restricted to experts due to the extensive knowledge, experience, and resources required. This thesis aims to remove these barriers with an end-to-end system for intuitively designing robots from high-level specifications. By describing an envisioned structure or behavior, casual users can immediately build and use a robot for their task. The presented work encourages users to treat robots for physical tasks as they would treat software for computational tasks. By simplifying the design process and fostering an iterative approach, it moves towards the proliferation of on-demand custom robots that can address applications including education, healthcare, disaster aid, and everyday life. Users can intuitively compose modular components from an integrated library into complex electromechanical devices. The system provides design feedback, performs verification, makes any required modifications, and then co-designs the underlying subsystems to generate wiring instructions, mechanical drawings, microcontroller code for autonomous behavior, and user interface software. The current work features printable origami-inspired foldable robots as well as general electromechanical devices, and is extensible to many fabrication techniques. Building upon this foundation, tools are provided that allow users to describe functionality rather than structure, simulate robot systems, and explore design spaces to achieve behavioral guarantees. The presented system allows non-engineering users to rapidly fabricate customized robots, facilitating the proliferation of robots in everyday life. It thereby marks an important step towards the realization of personal robots that have captured imaginations for decades.}
}

2015

A. Mehta, J. DelPreto, and D. Rus, “Integrated codesign of printable robots,” Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics, vol. 7, iss. 2, 2015. doi:10.1115/1.4029496
[BibTeX] [Abstract] [Download PDF]

This work presents a system by which users can easily create printable origami-inspired robots from high-level structural specifications. Starting from a library of basic mechanical, electrical, and software building blocks, users can hierarchically assemble integrated electromechanical components and programmed mechanisms. The system compiles those designs to cogenerate complete fabricable outputs: mechanical drawings suitable for direct manufacture, wiring instructions for electronic devices, and firmware and user interface (UI) software to control the final robot autonomously or from human input. This process allows everyday users to create on-demand custom printable robots for personal use, without the requisite engineering background, design tools, and cycle time typical of the process today. This paper describes the system and its use, demonstrating its abilities and versatility through the design of several disparate robots.

@article{mehta2015codesign,
title={Integrated codesign of printable robots},
author={Mehta, Ankur and DelPreto, Joseph and Rus, Daniela},
journal={Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics},
publisher={American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)},
volume={7},
number={2},
year={2015},
month={May},
doi={10.1115/1.4029496},
url={http://mechanismsrobotics.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/data/journals/jmroa6/933289/jmr_007_02_021015.pdf},
abstract={This work presents a system by which users can easily create printable origami-inspired robots from high-level structural specifications. Starting from a library of basic mechanical, electrical, and software building blocks, users can hierarchically assemble integrated electromechanical components and programmed mechanisms. The system compiles those designs to cogenerate complete fabricable outputs: mechanical drawings suitable for direct manufacture, wiring instructions for electronic devices, and firmware and user interface (UI) software to control the final robot autonomously or from human input. This process allows everyday users to create on-demand custom printable robots for personal use, without the requisite engineering background, design tools, and cycle time typical of the process today. This paper describes the system and its use, demonstrating its abilities and versatility through the design of several disparate robots.}
}

A. M. Mehta, J. DelPreto, K. W. Wong, S. Hamill, H. Kress-Gazit, and D. Rus, “Robot creation from functional specifications,” in The International Symposium on Robotics Research (ISRR), , 2015. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-60916-4_36
[BibTeX] [Abstract] [Download PDF]

The design of new robots is often a time-intensive task requiring multi-disciplinary expertise, making it difficult to create custom robots on demand. To help address these issues, this work presents an integrated end-to-end system for rapidly creating printable robots from a Structured English description of desired behavior. Linear temporal logic (LTL) is used to formally represent the functional requirements from a structured task specification, and a modular component library is used to ground the propositions and generate structural specifications; complete mechanical, electrical, and software designs are then automatically synthesized. The ability and versatility of this system are demonstrated by sample robots designed in this manner.

@inbook{mehta2015robotcreation,
title={Robot creation from functional specifications},
author={Mehta, Ankur M and DelPreto, Joseph and Wong, Kai Weng and Hamill, Scott and Kress-Gazit, Hadas and Rus, Daniela},
booktitle={The International Symposium on Robotics Research (ISRR)},
year={2015},
doi={10.1007/978-3-319-60916-4_36},
isbn={978-3-319-60916-4},
url={https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007\\978-3-319-60916-4_36.pdf},
abstract={The design of new robots is often a time-intensive task requiring multi-disciplinary expertise, making it difficult to create custom robots on demand. To help address these issues, this work presents an integrated end-to-end system for rapidly creating printable robots from a Structured English description of desired behavior. Linear temporal logic (LTL) is used to formally represent the functional requirements from a structured task specification, and a modular component library is used to ground the propositions and generate structural specifications; complete mechanical, electrical, and software designs are then automatically synthesized. The ability and versatility of this system are demonstrated by sample robots designed in this manner.}
}

2014

A. M. Mehta, J. DelPreto, B. Shaya, and D. Rus, “Cogeneration of mechanical, electrical, and software designs for printable robots from structural specifications,” in 2014 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2014. doi:10.1109/IROS.2014.6942960
[BibTeX] [Abstract] [Download PDF]

Designing and fabricating new robotic systems is typically limited to experts, requiring engineering background, expensive tools, and considerable time. In contrast, to facilitate everyday users developing custom robots for personal use, this work presents a new system to easily create printable foldable robots from high-level structural specifications. A user merely needs to select electromechanical components from a library of basic building blocks and pre-designed mechanisms, then connect them to define custom robot assemblies. The system then generates complete mechanical drawings suitable for fabrication, instructions for the assembly of electronics, and software to control and drive the final robot. Several robots designed in this manner demonstrate the ability and versatility of this process.

@inproceedings{mehta2014cogeneration,
title={Cogeneration of mechanical, electrical, and software designs for printable robots from structural specifications},
author={Mehta, Ankur M and DelPreto, Joseph and Shaya, Benjamin and Rus, Daniela},
booktitle={2014 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)},
organization={IEEE},
year={2014},
month={September},
doi={10.1109/IROS.2014.6942960},
ISSN={2153-0858},
url={http://people.csail.mit.edu/mehtank/webpubs/iros2014.pdf},
abstract={Designing and fabricating new robotic systems is typically limited to experts, requiring engineering background, expensive tools, and considerable time. In contrast, to facilitate everyday users developing custom robots for personal use, this work presents a new system to easily create printable foldable robots from high-level structural specifications. A user merely needs to select electromechanical components from a library of basic building blocks and pre-designed mechanisms, then connect them to define custom robot assemblies. The system then generates complete mechanical drawings suitable for fabrication, instructions for the assembly of electronics, and software to control and drive the final robot. Several robots designed in this manner demonstrate the ability and versatility of this process.}
}

J. DelPreto, A. M. Mehta, and D. Rus, “Extended Abstract: Cogeneration of Electrical and Software Designs from Structural Specifications,” in Robot Makers Workshop, Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS), 2014.
[BibTeX] [Abstract]

While technology has increasingly permeated modern society through devices such as laptops and smartphones, the goal of personal robotics remains largely elusive. Current methods for designing, fabricating, and programming robots require extensive knowledge, time, and resources which prevent the general public from enjoying their potential benefits. A system that uses high-level functional descripions to automatically and quickly generate inexpensive robot designs, including relevant instructions, fabrication files, electrical layouts, low-level software, and user interfaces, could therefore have a significant impact on incorporating robots into daily life. While a casual user desiring to create a robot for a personal task would likely have a rough idea of what the robot should look like, the necessary electronics and software are often more abstract and harder to define. While systems such as Lego Mindstorms ([1]) or LittleBits ([2]) provide modular frameworks for creating devices, they typically require additional programming by the user or offer a limited range of modules. To help address such issues, a system is presented which aims to automatically generate electrical designs, control software, and user interfaces from more intuitive structural specifications.

@inproceedings{delpreto2014cogeneration,
title={Extended Abstract: Cogeneration of Electrical and Software Designs from Structural Specifications},
author={DelPreto, Joseph and Mehta, Ankur M and Rus, Daniela},
booktitle={Robot Makers Workshop, Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS)},
year={2014},
month={June},
abstract={While technology has increasingly permeated modern society through devices such as laptops and smartphones, the goal of personal robotics remains largely elusive. Current methods for designing, fabricating, and programming robots require extensive knowledge, time, and resources which prevent the general public from enjoying their potential benefits. A system that uses high-level functional descripions
to automatically and quickly generate inexpensive robot designs, including relevant instructions, fabrication files, electrical layouts, low-level software, and user interfaces, could therefore have a significant impact on incorporating robots into daily life.
While a casual user desiring to create a robot for a personal task would likely have a rough idea of what the robot should look like, the necessary electronics and software are often more abstract and harder to define. While systems such as Lego Mindstorms ([1]) or LittleBits ([2]) provide modular frameworks for creating devices, they typically require additional programming by the user or offer a limited
range of modules. To help address such issues, a system is presented which aims to automatically generate electrical designs, control software, and user interfaces from more intuitive structural specifications.}
}