Robot Assisted Carpentry for Mass Customization
Publication
International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
Authors
Jeffrey Lipton*, Adriana Schulz*, Andrew Spielberg, Luis Trueba, Wojciech Matusik, Daniela Rus (*equal contribution)
Abstract
Despite the ubiquity of carpentered items, the customization of carpentered items remains labor intensive. The generation of laymen editable templates for carpentry is difficult. Current design tools rely heavily on CNC fabrication, limiting applicability. We develop a template based system for carpentry and a robotic fabrication system using mobile robots and standard carpentry tools. Our end-to-end design and fabrication tool democratizes design and fabrication of carpentered items. Our method combines expert knowledge for template design, allows laymen users to customize and verify specific designs, and uses robotics system to fabricate parts. We validate our system using multiple designs to make customizable, verifiable templates and fabrication plans and show an end-to-end example that was designed, manufactured, and assembled using our tools.