Robotics
Plain2Fun
CHI2018 WIP, DIS 2018 (Honorable Mention)
The growing makers' community demands better supports for designing and fabricating interactive functional objects. Most of the current approaches focus on embedding desired functions within new objects. Instead, we advocate re-purposing existing objects and authoring interactive functions onto them. We present Plain2Fun, a design and fabrication pipeline enabling users to quickly transform ordinary objects into interactive and functional ones. Plain2Fun allows users to directly design the circuit layouts onto the surfaces of the scanned 3D model of existing objects. Our design tool automatically generates as short as possible circuit paths between any two points while avoiding intersections. Further, we build a digital machine to construct the conductive paths accurately. With a specially designed housing base, users can simply snap the electronic components onto the surfaces and obtain working physical prototypes. Moreover, we evaluate the usability of our system with multiple use cases.
Hexamorph
IROS 2014
Origami affords the creation of diverse 3D objects through explicit folding processes from 2D sheets of material. Originally as a paper craft from 17th century AD, origami designs reveal the rudimentary characteristics of sheet folding: it is lightweight, inexpensive, compact and combinatorial. In this paper, we present “HexaMorph”, a novel starfish-like hexapod robot designed for modularity, foldability and reconfigurability. Our folding scheme encompasses periodic foldable tetrahedral units, called “Basic Structural Units” (BSU), for constructing a family of closed-loop spatial mechanisms and robotic forms. The proposed hexapod robot is fabricated using single sheets of cardboard. The electronic and battery components for actuation are allowed to be preassembled on the flattened crease-cut pattern and enclosed inside when the tetrahedral modules are folded. The self-deploying characteristic and the mobility of the robot are investigated, and we discuss the motion planning and control strategies for its squirming locomotion. Our design and folding paradigm provides a novel approach for building reconfigurable robots using a range of lightweight foldable sheets.