Robotic Fabrication
Introduction to robotic fabrication
This course was developed to communicate the essentials of working with a kuka robot, specifically the low payload Agilus robots at the fabrication shops at MIT.
The course proceeded over a semester, beginning with online programming of a robot, teaching points and familiarizing students with LIN, CIRC, spline and PTP motions.
Setting up tools, both end of arm and external were investigated, students programming with each, using simple pens and foam cutting.
The students learned about interfacing with the digital and analog IO, the basics of work visual, programming in KRL, and producing circuits to interface with custom sensors and tooling
During the last module, students practiced with multi-axis milling in robot-master, a plugin for MasterCAM that supports path planning for custom robot cells.
During the last half of the semester, students developed their own processes, hacking existing tools and augmenting the robot with new capabilities.