Distributed dataflow machine controllers

Workflows in Digital Fabrication require coordination across heterogenous computing systems, from the design tools used to describe component geometries to the embedded control systems used to interact with the physical world in order to produce those components. In the state of the art, workflows are typically static and opaque, especially within embedded controllers themselves. This makes them difficult to modify or develop, and places barriers between high level computing and low level control. An opportunity exists to develop an open platform for interoperability and reconfigurability that spans low- and high-level workflow components, that could collapse much of the heterogeneity found in these systems into cohesive representations. To do so, this thesis develops a systems architecture based on reconfigurable graphs of dataflow objects. It embeds virtual dataflow graphs of modular software elements within physical dataflow graphs of modular hardware elements, recasting heterogenous systems as cohesive graphs all the way down. The architecture is reduced to practice across high-level browser computing and low-level embedded control, through mixed networking links. It is deployed on two machine systems: one that collapses path planning and path execution for a small milling machine, marking a departure from the historic use of G Codes, and another that aligns computer vision based measurement with low-level motor control and sensor acquisition, to open access to materials measurement.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

Department dc:contributor.department

Program in Media Arts and Sciences (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2021

Author dc:creator

• Read, Jake Robert.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Neil Gershenfeld.

• Program in Media Arts and Sciences

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses may be protected by copyright. Please reuse MIT thesis content according to the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy, which is available through the URL provided.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/145214

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/145214