CAREER: Toolkits for Digital/Physical Workflows

该项目通过降低在工作流程中使用自动化的门槛，贡献工具包来支持设计人员创建既包括硬件又包括软件的系统。虽然自动化可以提高精度和效率，但设置新的自动化工作流程可能成本高昂，需要专业知识和大量的前期工程时间。由于这一成本，自动化在很大程度上被用于那些足够频繁地使用以收回前期投资的任务，例如在大规模生产的背景下。规模较小或使用利基工作流程的领域专家无法以同样的方式受益，阻碍了他们的进步。相比之下，这项研究优先考虑了更广泛的制造从业者社区，他们的不同需求需要广泛的自动化策略。该项目将帮助从业人员在其工作中确定实现自动化的可行机会，贡献可供从业人员编写自己的自动化数字/物理工作流程的开放源码软件和硬件工具包，并组织使用和维护这些技术的社区。这些成果将通过一系列课程和研讨会，帮助广大开发创新的以人为中心的系统的人，这些系统在他们选择的应用领域使用数字/物理工作流，这些课程和研讨会将使用这些技术和其开放源码版本来教授。这项研究包括三个主要领域：对跨越数字和物理空间的从业人员的工作进行形成性研究，如制造者或实验室科学家；开发用于自动化物理过程的新设备和硬件模块，包括运动控制和主动末端执行器；以及最终用户软件，用于构建自动数字/物理工作流，包括支持创建用于自动事件检测的特定于任务的人工智能(AI)模型的模块。这种以人为本的方法-用户可以在收集额外数据时改进他们的模型和工作流-利用从业者在收集过程中对自己数据的理解。通过形成性研究和设计研讨会与不同领域的专家合作，这项研究的工具包和系统将推广到多个应用领域。其他人将有机会参与这项技术，并通过DIY(DIY)Biolabs和MakerSpace等社区空间的课程和研讨会学习自动化。此外，这项研究将为可复制和可由最终用户定制的开源硬件提供设计建议。总而言之，这些贡献既包括数字/物理工作流程自动化的宝贵工具包，也包括对未来系统设计的影响。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project contributes toolkits to support designers creating systems that include both hardware and software by lowering the threshold to using automation in their workflows. While automation can increase precision and efficiency, setting up new automated workflows can be costly, requiring expertise and significant up-front engineering time. Because of this cost, automation is largely used for tasks that are sufficiently frequently used that this up-front investment can be recouped, such as in the context of mass production. Domain experts working at smaller scales or with niche workflows cannot benefit in the same ways, hindering their progress. In contrast, this research prioritizes a broader community of fabrication practitioners whose varied requirements demand a broad diversity of automation strategies. This project will help practitioners identify viable opportunities for automation in their work, contribute open-source software and hardware toolkits with which practitioners can author their own automated digital/physical workflows, and organize communities using and maintaining these technologies. These outputs will provide assistance to a wide range of people developing innovative human-centered systems that use digital/physical workflows in their chosen application areas through a series of courses and workshops that will be taught using these technologies and through their open-source release.This research includes three main areas: formative research on the work of practitioners who span digital and physical spaces, such as fabricators or laboratory scientists; the development of novel devices and hardware modules for automating physical processes including motion control and active end effectors; and end-user software that scaffolds the authoring of automated digital/physical workflows, including modules that support the creation of task-specific artificial intelligence (AI) models for automated event detection. This human-centered approach—where users can refine their models and workflows as they collect additional data—leverages practitioners’ understanding of their own data during collection. By collaborating with experts across different domains through formative studies and design workshops, toolkits and systems from this research will generalize to multiple application areas. Other people will have opportunities to engage with this technology and learn about automation through courses and workshops in community spaces like Do-It-Yourself (DIY) biolabs and makerspaces. Furthermore, this research will contribute design recommendations for open-source hardware that is replicable and can be tailored by end-users. Together, these contributions comprise both valuable toolkits for automating digital/physical workflows and implications for future systems design.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.