Created by Madeline Gannon - researcher, designer and educator at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Architecture and also a PhD candidate in Computational Design, Quipt is a gesture-based control software that facilitates new ways to communicate with industrial robots. Using wearable markers and a motion capture system, Quipt gives industrial robots basic spatial behaviors for creative safe and intuitive interaction with people. Wearable markers on the hand, around the neck, or elsewhere on the body let a robot see and respond to users in a shared space. This lets users and the robot safely follow, mirror, and avoid one another as they collaborate together.
Industrial robots are truly incredible CNC machines – not just for their speed, power, and precision, but because they are also highly adaptable. Unlike other CNC machines, when you put a tool on the end of the robot, you completely transform what it can do: put a sprayer on it, and it becomes a painting robot; put a gripper on it, and it becomes a material handling robot; put a welder on it, and it becomes a spot welding robot.