PICA . A Designer Oriented Low-Cost Personal Robotic Fabrication Platform for Sketch Level Prototyping

Abstract

As digital design and fabrication are becoming increasingly prevalent, it is essential to consider how these technologies can be made more affordable and intuitively introduced to individual designers with limited computing skills. In this paper, we present an affordable personal robotic fabrication platform, PICA, consisting of a 3D printed robotic arm with a set of controller programs. The platform allows designers with limited computational design skills to assemble motors and 3D printed parts easily and to operate it in a code-free environment with direct manipulation through 3D modeling software. With the real-time communication between 3D modeling software and this robotic fabrication platform, PICA also allows designers to efficiently change the topological properties of geometry during the fabrication process. Based on a comparative observation of several application scenarios of using PICA among two groups of architecture students, the research can be summarized as follows: 1.) The project has proved to be an affordable approach to ease the materializing process when converting a designer's initial intent from digital space to a physical prototype. 2.) Designers could be facilitated by utilizing this robotic fabrication platform, especially during the period of conceptual design.