To-Go-Bots

April 3, 2012 1:04 PM

MIT is leading an NSF-funded project with researchers from University of Pennsylvania and Harvard that aims to enable anyone to "design, customize and print a specialized robot in a matter of hours." Constructed from "cyber-physical primitives," the robots (some early examples here) would be able to be made in bulk on demand and could help change the entire workflow of device and robot creation, from engineering to warehousing to assembly.
posted by BlackLeotardFront (14 comments total)

Would using this to make a robot that makes more robots be the same as asking a genie for unlimited wishes?
posted by troika at 1:07 PM on April 3, 2012

Cheap micro-bots that anyone can print-off in unlimited numbers?






What could go wrong?
posted by Thorzdad at 1:08 PM on April 3, 2012 [3 favorites]

Would using this to make a robot that makes more robots be the same as asking a genie for unlimited wishes?

No, more like humans producing more humans. Which they do.
posted by delmoi at 1:28 PM on April 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

Would using this to make a robot that makes more robots be the same as asking a genie for unlimited wishes?

You jest, but this is the challenge underlying building 3d-printers that can print 3d-printers... If you could build a robot to construct the parts of the 3d-printer, you'd be in some real business...
posted by kaibutsu at 1:29 PM on April 3, 2012

with performance one would expect from a team of prefessional engineers, using advanced materials

Prefessional? As in not actually engineers yet?

One wouldn't expect much performance from them at all.....
posted by jeisme at 1:29 PM on April 3, 2012

Is it me or does the Printable Origami Gripper for people with limited mobility require as much or more fine motor control than actually gripping?
posted by nathancaswell at 1:35 PM on April 3, 2012

Cheap micro-bots that anyone can print-off in unlimited numbers?

What could go wrong?

A profusion of worrybots demanding everything stop until they have been individually reassured is a real risk.
posted by anigbrowl at 1:36 PM on April 3, 2012 [5 favorites]

What could go wrong?

My guess is, hastening the collapse of our industrial consumerist economy. Our sorry, you said "wrong"
posted by crayz at 1:51 PM on April 3, 2012

Finally, a DIY robot army solution for the supervillain on a budget.
posted by Lighthammer at 1:58 PM on April 3, 2012 [3 favorites]

A profusion of worrybots demanding everything stop until they have been individually reassured is a real risk.

I, for one, look forward to an age of ubiquitous electronic monks. Given the company I keep I could use at least three, and possibly more.
posted by clarknova at 3:18 PM on April 3, 2012

I'm not to worried about the world being taken over by folded paper origamibots.
posted by delmoi at 3:48 PM on April 3, 2012

let's see one of those paperweights lift a 50 pound box
posted by pyramid termite at 4:36 PM on April 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

Let's print up some H-Ks and cut to the chase...
posted by Fists O'Fury at 4:44 PM on April 3, 2012

This falls into the mental category I have called "partly-baked ideas". Makerbots and replicators go here as well. I don't think anything fabulous will come of this overnight, but I bet if they keep slogging at it for a decade or so, something great will come out of it.
posted by newdaddy at 8:00 PM on April 3, 2012