Automated Design of Printable Interactive Robots
This project focuses on optimizing and automating the design of 3-D-printable robots. The first phase involves creating an application that optimizes designs based on high level specifications of desired behavior provided by the user. Training sets consisting of RFID sensor data and observed human-robot interaction inform the application’s algorithms and improve its optimization strategy. I will explore paper 3-D printing and fabricate simple prototype robots to validate and train the models in the application. Time permitting the second phase of the project will be developing an algorithm to simultaneously optimize the structure material composition and motion of a printable robot given high level specifications.

I’m participating in the SuperUROP program to explore research as a career path expand my knowledge of robotics machine learning and UX and gain experience building a complex software product from scratch. The project is interesting to me because it will enable people to design and fabricate their own printable robots and the robots will be able to use RFID technology to interact with people and the environment.