Justin Matejka
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Crowdsourced Fabrication

Benjamin Lafreniere, Tovi Grossman, Fraser Anderson, Justin Matejka, Heather Kerrick, Danil Nagy, Lauren Vasey, Evan Atherton, Nicholas Beirne, Marcelo H. Coelho, Nicholas Cote, Steven Li, Andy Nogueira, Long Nguyen, Tobias Schwinn, James Stoddart, David Thomasson, Ray Wang, Thomas White, David Benjamin, Maurice Conti, Achim Menges, George Fitzmaurice
January 2016 · Proceedings of the 29th Annual Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST)

Abstract

In recent years, extensive research in the HCI literature has explored interactive techniques for digital fabrication. However, little attention in this body of work has examined how to involve and guide human workers in fabricating larger-scale structures. We propose a novel model of crowdsourced fabrication, in which a large number of workers and volunteers are guided through the process of building a pre-designed structure. The process is facilitated by an intelligent construction space capable of guiding individual workers and coordinating the overall build process. More specifically, we explore the use of smartwatches, indoor location sensing, and instrumented construction materials to provide real-time guidance to workers, coordinated by a foreman engine that manages the overall build process. We report on a three day deployment of our system to construct a 12-tall bamboo pavilion with assistance from more than one hundred volunteer workers, and reflect on observations and feedback collected during the exhibit.

DOI PDF

Figures

Figure 1. We explore crowdsourced fabrication through the collaborative construction of a 12-foot tall bamboo pavilion (a). The pavilion was built with the assistance of more than one hundred untraine
Figure 2. An individual tensegrity module (left), and a connector node (right).
Figure 3. The construction space consisted of a number of stations surrounding the structure being constructed.
Figure 4. Example guidance screens from the smartwatch app.
Figure 5. The wireless RGB LED control board (left), and an assembled connector node (right).
Figure 6. Individual Hive components are made up of three bamboo sticks, with a thread winding holding the module together. The winding is performed by a 6-axis robotic arm.
Figure 7. The foreman engine dashboard, displayed at the entrance to the exhibit.
Figure 8. The system architecture.
Figure 9. Instruction provided for loading the bamboo sticks. The user loosened a bolt (a) and then adjusted the angle of a clamp (b). (c) An LED on the loading platform indicates which stick to inser
Figure 10. (a) Connector nodes on the structure pulse in colors that indicate the location and orientation to attach a part. (b) The worker’s connector nodes pulse in colors that indicate the end caps
Figure 11. The completed pavilion on Day 3.
Figure 12. Build progress on the pavilion over the three days of the exhibit. Each line represents the start and end time for one part. Blue lines represent parts built by volunteer participants, while red lines indicate parts built by staff.
Figure 13. Median times for individual steps in the build process (volunteer participants).
Figure 14. Overall ratings of the building experience.
Figure 15. Ratings of individual steps in the build process.
Figure 16. Ratings of individual guidance mechanisms.
Figure 17. Additional survey questions about the smartwatch.
Figure 18. Self-rated confidence that participants could complete the task without assistance.

BibTeX

@inproceedings{10.1145/2984511.2984553,
 abstract = {In recent years, extensive research in the HCI literature has explored interactive techniques for digital fabrication. However, little attention in this body of work has examined how to involve and guide human workers in fabricating larger-scale structures. We propose a novel model of crowdsourced fabrication, in which a large number of workers and volunteers are guided through the process of building a pre-designed structure. The process is facilitated by an intelligent construction space capable of guiding individual workers and coordinating the overall build process. More specifically, we explore the use of smartwatches, indoor location sensing, and instrumented construction materials to provide real-time guidance to workers, coordinated by a foreman engine that manages the overall build process. We report on a three day deployment of our system to construct a 12-tall bamboo pavilion with assistance from more than one hundred volunteer workers, and reflect on observations and feedback collected during the exhibit.},
 address = {New York, NY, USA},
 author = {Lafreniere, Benjamin and Grossman, Tovi and Anderson, Fraser and Matejka, Justin and Kerrick, Heather and Nagy, Danil and Vasey, Lauren and Atherton, Evan and Beirne, Nicholas and Coelho, Marcelo H. and Cote, Nicholas and Li, Steven and Nogueira, Andy and Nguyen, Long and Schwinn, Tobias and Stoddart, James and Thomasson, David and Wang, Ray and White, Thomas and Benjamin, David and Conti, Maurice and Menges, Achim and Fitzmaurice, George},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the 29th Annual Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology},
 doi = {10.1145/2984511.2984553},
 isbn = {9781450341899},
 keywords = {fabrication, wearables, iot, crowdsourcing},
 location = {Tokyo, Japan},
 numpages = {14},
 pages = {15–28},
 publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
 series = {UIST '16},
 title = {Crowdsourced Fabrication},
 url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/2984511.2984553},
 year = {2016}
}