UC Berkeley

The growing availability of digital fabrication tools has transformed how diverse communities of makers design, prototype, and manufacture physical objects. However, in order to fluently create physical objects using these tools, users must navigate a gauntlet of software packages to draft a digital model, devise a toolpath for manufacturing, and drive the fabrication machine itself. In my dissertation research, I consider alternative workflows and interactions that allow users to more fluidly engage with the capabilities of digital fabrication tools. My exploration in this domain is guided by the following question: How can digital fabrication tools engage and amplify opportunities for human judgment, skill, and creativity during the fabrication process?

This dissertation engages with this question from three perspectives embodied in three respective interactive systems. First, how can design intent be directly communicated to a digital fabrication tool? I examine this through MatchSticks, a bespoke CNC system that localizes design and fabrication workflows, and allows users to rapidly design and create wood joinery in-situ. Second, how can the existing ways users interact with physical tools be augmented, rather than defenestrated, by computation? Using a manual lathe as a case study, I exchange the mechanical coupling between handwheels and tool position for a digital coupling: sensors, actuators, computation. Users directly control this lathe "by-wire", while being supported by capabilities more often associated with digital fabrication. Last, how can the capabilities we associate with digital authoring be broadly incorporated within hands-on making? I examine how commonly used workshop jigs and fixtures can be generated computationally using an industrial robot. The resulting interactions afford the tangible familiarity of physical jigs and fixtures while taking full advantage of reprogrammable software.

All three approaches acknowledge and celebrate the process of fabrication as a site of creative exploration and problem solving. With this framing, I demonstrate how not only can capabilities of digital fabrication be realized outside of established workflows, but that hands-on fabrication itself can be imbued with the characteristics of digital authoring.