Automatic robot construction method using 3D printer for adorable robot making

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K20367
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 61050:Intelligent robotics-related
• Research Institution: Kitami Institute of Technology
• Principal Investigator: Yamauchi Sho 北見工業大学, 工学部, 助教 (60781200)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: ロボット / 3Dプリンタ / 自動設計 / 最適化

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Previously, a crystal structured endoskeleton was created based on the method replacing specific regions by a crystal structure pattern using bool operation.
In these case, it is sufficiently rigid when each structure units are connected enough. However, it is too weak when connections between structure units are not constructed enough according to the shape of an original input model.
To solve this problem, new method was constructed assuming crystal structured endoskeleton as a graph structure and evaluate structural weak positions based on the connectivity preliminary. A crystal structured endoskeleton is reinforced based on this evaluation. Also, arbitrary and multiple criteria could be introduced to the fitness function of this automatic robot construction software.

Free Research Field

自律ロボット

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

マスコットキャラクター的なロボットのデザインは，人の気を引くための奇抜さや利用対象者の趣向の差などから非常に多岐に渡ると考えられる．そのためその設計方法はデザインひとつひとつに対する場当たり的なものではなく，デザインに依らず普遍的に用いることができるものが望ましい．そのような普遍的・統一的なロボットの設計方法を構築することができれば，ロボットの設計という問題を計算機でも記述できるようになるため，場当たり的な人手の設計よりも優れた，計算機によるロボット設計の自動化・高速化が期待でき，将来的な需要の増大に対しても対応可能となる．