MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) wants to convert laser cutters into something more. By attaching a head to a commercial laser cutter and adding software, they combine the functions of a cutter, a conductive printer, and a pick and place system. The idea is to enable construction of entire devices such as robots and drones.
The concept, called LaserFactory, sounds like a Star Trek-style replicator, but it doesn’t create things like circuit elements and motors. It simply picks them up, places them, and connects them using silver conductive ink. You can get a good idea of how it works by watching the video below.
While it is true that all of this technology exists today, there’s some synergy in having them all together. For example, the video shows etching grooves into acrylic with the laser, filling the grooves with silver ink, and then using the laser to set the silver forming a sort of printed circuit board. Then the pick and place can put components down which the machine can laser solder into place.
Of course, it remains to be seen how durable this construction is. Also, it is obvious that you are going to have a limited palette of options depending on what components are available. That is, you can’t build a tank with quadcopter parts.
We’ve seen laser soldering rigs before. Homebrew pick and place machines are around, too. It doesn’t seem too far a stretch that you could fabricate your own version of this with a laser module, a paste extruder, and a few other odds and ends.
Skynet will be able to construct its own robots, thanks to this technology.
Apparently the one thing saving us at the moment is how crappy computers are at routing complex circuits without some human fudging and optimisation.
FPGA logic routing are pretty much handled by software these days.
It’s also hard to make any electrochemical incompatibility mistakes leading to accelerated corrosion if you’re restricted to Lego.
Not really because an AI could just decide to “fix” the problem using bodge wires or use a tiny FPGA with the sole purpose of routing logic signals.
Will it print sharks?
everything is better with a strong addition of Software!
Great concept, except it didn’t build the entire drone. what it did was simple, and most of the drone was preassembled.
No but it does build one using subtractive manufacturing and construction.