Robiot: A Design Tool for Actuating Everyday Objects with Automatically Generated 3D Printable Mechanisms

Users can now easily communicate digital information with an Internet of Things; in contrast, there remains a lack of support to automate physical tasks that involve legacy static objects,e.g., adjusting a desk lamp’s angle for optimal brightness, turning on/off a manual faucet when washing dishes, sliding a window to maintain a preferred indoor temperature. Automating these simple physical tasks has the potential to improve people’s quality of life, which is particularly important for people with a disability or in situational impairment. We present Robiot—a design tool for generating mechanisms that can be attached to, motorized, and actuating legacy static objects to perform simple physical tasks. Users only need to take a short video manipulating an object to demonstrate an intended physical behavior. Robiot then extracts requisite parameters and automatically generates 3D models of the enabling actuation mechanisms by performing a scene and motion analysis of the 2D video in alignment with the object’s3D model. In an hour long design session, six participants used Robiot to actuate seven everyday objects, imbuing them with the robotic capability to automate various physical tasks.