Many different types of robots are available today, but each of these robots took many years to produce.
Another great challenge with today’s robots is the length of time to design and fabricate new robots. We need to speed up the creation of robots. Many different types of robots are available today, but each of these robots took many years to produce. The computation, mobility, and manipulation capabilities of robots are tightly coupled to the body of the robot—its hardware system. Since today’s robot bodies are fixed and difficult to extend, the capabilities of each robot are limited by its body. Fabricating new robots—add-on robotic modules, fixtures, or specialized tools to extend capabilities—is not a real option, as the process of design, fabrication, assembly, and programming is long and cumbersome. We need tools that will speed up the design and fabrication of robots. Imagine creating a robot compiler that takes as input the functional specification of the robot (for example “I want a robot to play chess with me”) and computes a design that meets the specification, a fabrication plan, and a custom-programming environment for using the robot. Many tasks big and small could be automated by rapid design and fabrication of many different types of robots using such a robot compiler.