Transcript
A natural application for cutting-edge additive manufacturing
production lines is printable robots. Printable robots are those that
can be assembled from parts produced by 3-D printers.
At the 2014 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation,
an MIT team introduced a new wrinkle on the idea: bakable robots.
The MIT researchers demonstrated the promise of printable robotic
components that, when heated, automatically fold into prescribed
three-dimensional configurations. The presentation was based on two
research papers.
One paper describes a system that takes a digital specification of a
3-D shape and generates the 2-D patterns that would enable a piece of
plastic to reproduce it through self-folding.
The second paper explains how to build electrical components - like
resistors, inductors, capacitors, sensors, and actuators, which act as
the brain and the electromechanical "muscles" that enable a robot's
movements - all from self-folding, laser-cut materials.
The ultimate objective is build a hardware compiler, that would let
anyone say, "I want a robot that will play with my cat," or "I want a
robot that will clean the floor." Then, from this high-level
specification, the compiler could actually generate a working device.
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