Personal and ubiquitous robotics

1. Personal and ubiquitous robotics Ankur Mehta mehtank@ucla.edu

2. Robots everywhere for everyone • “No need to build good robots” • Jason O'Kane • We need to build bad robots • simple functionality • negligible robustness • limited reliability • Any automation is better than no automation Ankur Mehta mehtank@ucla.edu 2

3. Application space • Unspecified problems • Constrained resources • Home automation • Personal assistance • Custom orthotics • Research tools • Prototyping • Education Ankur Mehta mehtank@ucla.edu 3

4. A circuit analogy • ASIC: Fully specified design from ground up • Digital standard cells? Breadboards? • FPGA / SOC: Single all-purpose device Ankur Mehta mehtank@ucla.edu 4

5. User-driven robotics • Enable the on-demand creation of custom printable electromechanical systems • Design intuitively • Fabricate inexpensively • Control autonomously • Iterate rapidly Ankur Mehta mehtank@ucla.edu 5

6. Pervasive personal robotics • “There’s a robot for that.” • Ubiquitous • Broad userbase • Diverse functionality • Personal • Application specific • On demand Ankur Mehta mehtank@ucla.edu 6

7. Questions Questions Design Design Answers Answers Specification Design User-in-the-loop design automation Ankur Mehta mehtank@ucla.edu 7

8. Robot compiler vision Autonomously design, manufacture, and control robotic systems from a high-level task specification Big picture goal: $ vim myrobot.rbt “I want a robot to play chess with me” $ make myrobot Parsing specification …done. Determining behaviors …done. Generating mechanisms …done. Assembling components …done. Printing …done. Success! Ankur Mehta mehtank@ucla.edu 8

9. A world full of robots? • Design systems • (c.f. app engines, EDA) • High level definition (Domain specific languages) • Printable manufacturable designs • Full-stack verification, validation, and optimization? Ankur Mehta mehtank@ucla.edu 9

10. A world full of robots? • Hardware • Integrated manufacturing tools • Structures • Circuits • Sensors and actuators • Components and building blocks • Processing • Communications • Control Ankur Mehta mehtank@ucla.edu 10

11. A world full of robots • Algorithms and applications • Control • Distributed • Underactuated • Secure / fault tolerant • Systems • Application-aware integration • Human interfacing Ankur Mehta mehtank@ucla.edu 11

12. Software-defined hardware • Structural building blocks • Software building blocks • Electrical building blocks • UI elements Ankur Mehta mehtank@ucla.edu 12

13. Sub- components Common object-oriented interface Component Library Parameter constraints Input parameters Exposed interfaces Composition algorithms Implementation algorithms Fabricable specifications Ankur Mehta mehtank@ucla.edu 13

14. Hierarchical composition algorithms Ankur Mehta mehtank@ucla.edu 14

15. Robot creation pipeline Functional decomposition Structural constraints Behavioral constraints • Input: Functional specification • Output: Mission accomplished! Modular composition Structural specification 2x Co-design implementation Parameterized model Realization Fully specified design Fabrication Operation Robot Ankur Mehta mehtank@ucla.edu 15

16. Custom on-demand robots! Ankur Mehta mehtank@ucla.edu 16

17. Integrated single-chip robot? Ankur Mehta mehtank@ucla.edu 17

18. UCLA Laboratory for Embedded Machines and Ubiquitous Robots • Electromechanical design automation • Integrated electromechanical manufacturing • Wireless communication circuits and protocols • Distributed sensing, actuation, and control • Robotics in education • Obligatory plugs – I'm looking for: • Research collaborators • Talented postdocs Ankur Mehta mehtank@ucla.edu 18

19. Internet of things (and robots) Ankur Mehta mehtank@ucla.edu 19

20. Motivational quotes • The perfect is the enemy of the good • Just do it • Move fast and break things • If at first you don't succeed, try try again • We'll fix it in post Ankur Mehta mehtank@ucla.edu 20