MIT CSAIL researchers combined GenAI and a physics simulation engine to refine robot designs. The result: a machine that out-jumped a robot designed by humans.


 The usage of diffusion models, such as OpenAI's DALL-E, to generate ideas for new designs is growing in popularity.  These systems can be instructed by humans to produce an image, a movie, or an improved plan, and they will return with concepts they had not before thought of.

 However, did you know that advances in the development of functional robots are also being made by generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) models?  Structures and the systems that govern them have been created from scratch using recent diffusion-based techniques.  These models are capable of creating new designs and simulating them before they are manufactured, either with or without user input.

 

A new approach from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) applies this generative know-how toward improving humans’ robotic designs. Users can draft a 3D model of a robot and specify which parts they’d like to see a diffusion model modify, providing its dimensions beforehand. GenAI then brainstorms the optimal shape for these areas and tests its ideas in simulation. When the system finds the right design, you can save and then fabricate a working, real-world robot with a 3D printer, without requiring additional tweaks.

The researchers used this approach to create a robot that leaps up an average of roughly 2 feet, or 41 percent higher than a similar machine they created on their own. The machines are nearly identical in appearance: They’re both made of a type of plastic called polylactic acid, and while they initially appear flat, they spring up into a diamond shape when a motor pulls on the cord attached to them. So what exactly did AI do differently?

A closer look reveals that the AI-generated linkages are curved, and resemble thick drumsticks (the musical instrument drummers use), whereas the standard robot’s connecting parts are straight and rectangular.