Roman: Making Everyday Objects Robotically Manipulable with 3D-Printable Add-on Mechanisms

TL;DR

Roman introduces 3D-printable add-on mechanisms and software tools that enable robotic arms to manipulate everyday objects more easily, addressing a key challenge in robotic physical assistance.

Contribution

It provides a novel hardware and software framework for creating customizable, 3D-printable mechanisms that enhance robotic manipulability of common objects.

Findings

Validated with 14 objects and tasks demonstrating practical applicability.

Expert interviews confirm Roman's utility for robotic manipulation.

Enables easier integration of everyday objects into robotic workflows.

Abstract

One important vision of robotics is to provide physical assistance by manipulating different everyday objects, e.g., hand tools, kitchen utensils. However, many objects designed for dexterous hand-control are not easily manipulable by a single robotic arm with a generic parallel gripper. Complementary to existing research on developing grippers and control algorithms, we present Roman, a suite of hardware design and software tool support for robotic engineers to create 3D printable mechanisms attached to everyday handheld objects, making them easier to be manipulated by conventional robotic arms. The Roman hardware comes with a versatile magnetic gripper that can snap on/off handheld objects and drive add-on mechanisms to perform tasks. Roman also provides software support to register and author control programs. To validate our approach, we designed and fabricated Roman mechanisms for 14 everyday objects/tasks presented within a design space and conducted expert interviews with robotic engineers indicating that Roman serves as a practical alternative for enabling robotic manipulation of everyday objects.