MAXL: Distributed Trajectories for Modular Motion
Name
3623263.3623362.pdf
Size
8.24 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
286c75409608afd4ab7e12e840b82aea
Author(s)
Read, Jake
Peek, Nadya
Gershenfeld, Neil
Date Issued
October 8, 2023
Publisher
ACM|Symposium on Computational Fabrication
Citation
Read, Jake, Peek, Nadya and Gershenfeld, Neil. 2023. "MAXL: Distributed Trajectories for Modular Motion."
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Computational fabrication relies on time-synchronized operation of various machine components. Designing machines for novel workflows is of interest to the computational fabrication community, but designing control systems for these machines, especially with diverse actuators and sensors, remains challenging. We present MAXL, a modular, extensible machine control architecture that enables synchronous control of heterogeneous components. We contribute (1) a design pattern for a distributed trajectory object with one author and multiple readers, (2) high- and low-level APIs for interfacing this trajectory object to modular hardware and to digital fab applications (3) a simple time-synchronization algorithm and queuing scheme for distributing the trajectory object, and (4) an extensible hardware implementation of MAXL. We demonstrate MAXL’s utility in developing new computational fabrication applications by integrating it into two motion control applications; one for time-synchronized data output (light-painting), and the other for time-synchronized data retrieval (from an accelerometer). Finally, we discuss how MAXL can be extended for use in future machine applications.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Bits and Atoms
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1145/3623263.3623362
