BIRT: An Open-Source Integration Toolkit for Architectural Robotics

Abstract

The growing role of robotic systems in various fields, including architecture calls for a more accessible and adaptable control solutions. This paper introduces the Blender Interactive Robot Control Tool (BIRT), an open-source toolkit designed to simplify hardware integration, motion control, tool pathing, and interfacing with robotic arms using an Internet of Things (IoT) approach. BIRT combines the precision of offline programming with the adaptability inherent in online programming. It comprises a Blender interface, a Python communication abstraction layer, and an IoT hardware integration interface. This toolkit seeks to simplify the integration of sensors and actuators, offer an interactive approach to tool pathing, explore non-traditional approaches to robot control, and enhance affordability. Three separate yet interconnected tools are developed and tested as part of BIRT, each dealing with a different aspect of the system. This research contributes to the field of architectural robotics by proposing a solution to make robotics more accessible and adaptable to varying operational demands.

Key Contributions

Blender Interactive Robot Control Tool (BIRT) open-source toolkit
IoT approach for robotic arm interfacing
Interactive tool pathing methodology
Simplified hardware integration for sensors and actuators
Python communication abstraction layer

Conference Details

Conference: SIGraDi 2023: Accelerated Landscapes
Location: Punta del Este, Maldonado, Uruguay
Dates: November 29 - December 1, 2023
Pages: 19-29
Keywords: Interactive, robotics, real-time, blender3d, fabrication

Citation

@inproceedings{pacheco2023birt,
  title={BIRT: An Open-Source Integration Toolkit for Architectural Robotics},
  author={Pacheco, Luis},
  booktitle={Accelerated Landscapes - Proceedings of the XXVII International Conference of the Ibero-American Society of Digital Graphics (SIGraDi 2023)},
  year={2023},
  pages={19-29}
}