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Echidna: mixed-domain computational implementation via decision trees

Published: 16 June 2019 Publication History

Abstract

Custom mechatronic devices offer personalized functionality, but also come with many non-functional requirements that are unfamiliar to those inexperienced with electronics such as current draw and servo power. The Echidna prototype system enables non-electrical engineers to move from conception to implementation with their mechatronic ideas by generating and searching through a design space that automatically fills in supporting requirements, such as PCB placement and wiring, around their functional specification. The space is modeled as a decision tree whose root is the user's list of lights, motors, sensors, and other functional components that need to be connected, powered, and controlled. Once found, a complete and valid design can be used to synthesize geometry for 3D printing, circuits, and firmware resulting in a set of "plug and fabricate" files for creating their device. We demonstrate how Echidna realizes several designs and discuss how it can be further customized to task-specific applications.

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Cited By

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  • (2024)Design Space Exploration for Board-level Circuits: Exploring Alternatives in Component-based DesignProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642009(1-14)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
  • (2024)A Cross-domain, Computational Robot Design Flow from Morphology to Fabrication2024 IEEE 20th International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE)10.1109/CASE59546.2024.10711390(4012-4019)Online publication date: 28-Aug-2024
  • (2021)Weaving Schematics and Code: Interactive Visual Editing for Hardware Description LanguagesThe 34th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology10.1145/3472749.3474804(1039-1049)Online publication date: 10-Oct-2021
  • Show More Cited By

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cover image ACM Conferences
SCF '19: Proceedings of the 3rd Annual ACM Symposium on Computational Fabrication
June 2019
106 pages
ISBN:9781450367950
DOI:10.1145/3328939
Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

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Publication History

Published: 16 June 2019

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Author Tags

  1. computational design
  2. fabrication
  3. synthesis

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SCF '19
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SCF '19: Symposium on Computational Fabrication
June 16 - 18, 2019
Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh

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Cited By

View all
  • (2024)Design Space Exploration for Board-level Circuits: Exploring Alternatives in Component-based DesignProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642009(1-14)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
  • (2024)A Cross-domain, Computational Robot Design Flow from Morphology to Fabrication2024 IEEE 20th International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE)10.1109/CASE59546.2024.10711390(4012-4019)Online publication date: 28-Aug-2024
  • (2021)Weaving Schematics and Code: Interactive Visual Editing for Hardware Description LanguagesThe 34th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology10.1145/3472749.3474804(1039-1049)Online publication date: 10-Oct-2021
  • (2021)Appliancizer: Transforming Web Pages into Electronic DevicesProceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3411764.3445732(1-13)Online publication date: 6-May-2021

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