Making Machines That Make Rapid Prototyping of Rapid Prototyping Machines

Personal fabrication has been touted as the killer application of digital fabrication. The history of the personal computer is invoked as a roadmap to ubiquitous, user-friendly, and inexpensive personal-scale manufacturing. But what will those machines of the future actually look like? Perhaps there is an error in the assumption that the personal digital fabrication machines look like smaller versions of their industrial counterparts. After all, the user profile of someone making one thing for themselves is very different from that of a machinist making many of the same parts in a factory. Perhaps their tools also look different. The precision of computer controlled machines enables reliable production of parts to tight tolerances. However, how do we harness the precision of machines without losing the creativity of individuals? My lab at the University of Washington is called Machine Agen. © 2002-2012 IEEE.