Technology - MotionGen

MotionGen

Despite major advances in AI and robotics, the design of motion systems, such as one- and multi-degrees-of-freedom linkage mechanisms, remains an outdated, manual bottleneck. Engineers routinely spend up to 40% of their total design time on early-stage motion concept generation, and decisions made here lock in as much as 80% of the final product cost. Yet, fewer than 5% of engineers have formal training in kinematics. As a result, inefficient, trial-and‑error CAD workflows dominate the process, draining time and budgets. Even modest custom mechanical prototypes often run $10,000 to $50,000 per build and typically require several iterations.

Technology Overview:

MotionGen is a web-based mechanism simulation and synthesis software. The software is designed to scale to the needs of elementary to college students and industry professionals. It is part of the SnappyXO Design ecosystem, which also includes a hardware kit for physical prototyping of mechanisms and robots as well as age-and grade-appropriate curriculum. It can simulate N-bar, one or multi-degrees of freedom planar mechanisms consisting of revolute or prismatic joints. It is the world’s first synthesis software, which brings together machine learning and kinematics for path synthesis and uses a modern computational algorithm for simultaneous type and dimensional synthesis for motion generation (N-position) problems. It is backed by many years of academic research in the Mechanisms and Robotics area and covered extensively in peer-reviewed research publications. MotionGen also allows students to design and build highly customized robot parts compatible with the SnappyXO Design hardware. Elementary students use a special sandbox environment to learn designing mechanisms, which allows them to appreciate interplay between geometry and motion and helps build them critical spatial visualization skills, while college students have unlimited flexibility in creating their own designs for laser-cutting or 3D printing. Web‑based App: https://motiongen.io/

Source: https://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/motiongen/

Advantages:

Design and animate mechanisms for making your robots move, such as walking robots, drawing bots, grabbers, etc. - Visualize in 2D and 3D using different view options. - Design and draw your own simple shapes, which you can attach to mechanisms. Add your own context and scenes. - Prototype your completed robot using SnappyXO hardware kits. - Export custom part geometries for 3D printing and laser-cutting.