MIT project aims to deliver printable, personalised robots for the mass market

"This research envisions a whole new way of thinking about the design and manufacturing of robots, and could have a profound impact on society," said Professor Daniela Rus, who is leading the project. "We believe that it has the potential to transform manufacturing and to democratise access to robots." The $10million, five year project, called An Expedition in Computing for Compiling Printable Programmable Machines, will bring together researchers from MIT, the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University, with funding from the National Science Foundation. "Our goal is to develop technology that enables anyone to manufacture their own customised robot," said Professor Vijay Kumar, who is leading the team from the University of Pennsylvania. "This is truly a game changer. It could allow for the rapid design and manufacture of customised goods and change the way we teach science and technology in schools." While it currently takes years to produce, program and design a functioning robot, the new project would automate the process of producing functional 3D devices and allow individuals to design and build functional robots from materials as easily accessible as a sheet of paper. "Our vision is to develop an end to end process; specifically, a compiler for building physical machines that starts with a high level of specification of function, and delivers a programmable machine for that function using simple printing processes," said Professor Rus. The researchers are hoping to create a platform that would allow an individual to identify a household problem that needs assistance; then head to a local printing shop to select a blueprint from a library of robotic designs; and then customise an easy to use robotic device that could solve the problem. Within 24 hours, the robot would be printed, assembled, fully programmed and ready for action. "This project aims to dramatically reduce the development time for a variety of useful robots, opening the doors to potential applications in manufacturing, education, personalised healthcare and even disaster relief," said Rob Wood, an associate professor at Harvard University. Currently, the project researchers are focusing their research in several areas: developing an application programming interface for simple function specification and design, writing algorithms that would allow for control of the assembly of a device and its operations, creating an easy-to-use programming language environment, and designing new, programmable materials that would allow for automatic fabrication of robots. Thus far, the research team has prototyped two machines for designing, printing and programming, including an insect-like robot that could be used for exploring a contaminated area and a gripper that could be used by people with limited mobility. "It's really exciting to think about the kind of impact this work could have on the general population – beyond just a few select people who work in robotics," Rus concluded.