CHS: Small: Collaborative Research:Dynamic Computer-Aided Machining: Supporting Interactive Workflows for Digital Fabrication and Manufacturing

该项目将开发与小批量制造工作流程相一致的数字制造工具。它将研究早期采用者制造公司如何开发利用数字制造的生产工作流程。根据这些数据，将开发编程表示和软件工具，以促进特定数字制造工作流程的创建。这些软件工具将从最终用户的角度开发，提供编程抽象，允许与现有数字制造设备兼容的高级创意输入。3D打印等数字制造技术使小众、专业和定制产品的批量生产向小批量生产转变。小型制造企业依靠数字化制造来设计和生产新产品；使用迭代过程，他们开发特定于产品的工作流程，以不同形式应用数字制造的主要阶段（数字建模，机器编程和机器操作），用于构思，原型制作，修改和生产。这项研究将通过提供与传统艺术和工艺领域相关的技术，以及促进当地制造各种旨在吸引利基和多样化客户的商品，扩大和多样化参与数字制造和最终用户编程。本研究将建立特定领域的编程表示和软件工具，用于描述和执行动态数字制造工作流程。目前，还没有一种正式的描述语言可以用来描述全球范围内的数字制造操作。这项研究将提供一个数字制造表示和编程环境，使端到端数字制造工作流程的描述成为可能。该表示将为机器状态、用户输入和传感器反馈提供通用数据类型，这些数据类型可互换用于创建几何形状和工具路径，或驱动机器操作。它还支持通过条件、循环和模块化抽象来表达复杂的工作流体系结构。编程环境将建立在这种表示的基础上，使从业者能够通过一个统一的接口来定义和执行产品特定的工作流，用于建模、机器编程和机器操作。这项工作将通过提供用于指定动态机器行为的通用编程工具，大大推进交互制造和最终用户编程方面的人机交互研究工作。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will develop digital fabrication tools that align with the workflows of low-volume manufacturing. It will study how early-adopter manufacturing firms are developing production workflows that harness digital fabrication. Informed by this data, programming representations and software tools will be developed that facilitate the creation of specific digital fabrication workflows. These software tools will be developed from an end-user perspective, providing programming abstractions that allow for high-level creative input that is compatible with existing digital fabrication equipment. Digital fabrication technologies such as 3D printing enable a shift from mass-manufacture to low-volume production of niche, specialized, and customized products. Small manufacturing firms rely on digital fabrication for the design and production of new products; using an iterative process they develop product-specific workflows that apply the primary stages of digital fabrication (digital modeling, machine programming, and machine operation) in different forms for ideation, prototyping, revision, and production. This research will broaden and diversify participation in digital fabrication and end-user programming by providing technologies that are relevant to traditional art and craft domains, as well as facilitating local manufacture of a diversity of goods designed to appeal to niche and diverse customers. This research will establish domain-specific programming representations and software tools for describing and executing dynamic digital fabrication workflows. At present, there is no formal description language that can be used to describe digital fabrication operations at a global level. This research will contribute a digital fabrication representation and programming environment that enables the description of end-to-end digital fabrication workflows. The representation will provide generic datatypes for machine state, user input, and sensor feedback that can be used interchangeably to create geometry and toolpaths, or drive machine operation. It will also support the expression of complex workflow architecture through conditionals, loops, and abstractions for modularization. The programming environment will build on this representation to enable practitioners to define and execute product-specific workflows through a unified interface for modeling, machine programming, and machine operation. This work will substantially advance human-computer interaction research efforts in interactive fabrication and end-user programming by providing generalizable programming tools for specifying dynamic machine behavior.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.