Towards $1 Robots (Ankur Mehta, UCLA)
UCLA assistant professor Ankur Mehta discusses ways to make robot design and fabrication more accessible at a Paul G. Allen School talk introduced by Jeff Lipton.
In this talk
- 1:35
Why access to creation matters
Mehta’s lab works across robotics, from control and sensing to materials and manufacturing, with a goal of helping more people build robots. He connects gaps in income and technology access with unequal educational opportunities, and argues that making things can increase engagement and help widen participation.
- 14:56
Lowering the cost of robotics
Mehta contrasts expensive, complex research robots, which can cost around $1 million, with a Unix-inspired approach of building simpler systems that are easier to change and replace. His target of $1 per robot is a marker for accessible creation. Early paper-based wheeled designs cost about $10 and can support experiments in sensing, control, vision, and multi-robot networking.
- 28:04
Printable mechanisms and robots
Mehta combines folded sheet materials with conductive, silver-coated thread to build low-cost moving mechanisms. One oscillator costs about 40 cents in materials and can power a swimmer or walking robot; related designs can also drive LEDs and simple logic. These systems can work underwater and in strong magnetic fields because they use no conventional electronics.
- 41:55
Making robot design easier to access
Building a robot is only part of the challenge: designing one usually takes engineering expertise and substantial computing resources. Mehta describes optimization tools that turn goals, such as a four-second oscillation period, into robust designs, or help diagnose a weak blimp gripper. He argues that computation can help people express, test, and share design ideas.
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