ROBOFORMING: The Future of Metalworking? (I Had NO IDEA This Was Possible) - Smarter Every Day 290 

this is absolutely amazing, thx for sharing OMG amazing

Holy smokes that's a lot of data to process afterwards

you should follow this video with the old hand method of english wheels and pinch rollers .. because that is exactly what this is ... just updated to be done by robots instead of people

I love this channel, and this is some of the smartest, coolest, and most fascinating smart stuff going on right here! Wow!

Why not move the sheet instead of using Mr. Roboto? Like what a English Wheel sheet metal shaper does.

Yes, the way the system works most execs purchase their positions while employees don't have the fortunes needed for the equipment they use

Shirt looks way too clean for a machinist 🤣

@@samsonsoturian6013 CApITALism hAS fAiLed

Sure, until you realize it's just more marketing

irrelevant. business needs marketing. they clearly know the ins and outs and aren't just disassociated money managers. @@custos3249

The "employee" is the enginerd that makes everything happen, the other two are moneymen.

@@dieselmunkey Did you not watch the video ? One of the cofounder has a PhD in materials engineering and the CEO clearly has a deep understanding of the whole process.

And big kudos to Machina Labs for sharing this. IP is such a big deal in these shops.

@@difinoxyd2856 yeah, PhD in material is nowhere near applied robotics. And that copy-paste talk of pottery but planar gives a hint the engineer had to explain it to his boss first and that was all he remembered.

@@feedbackzaloop PHD in material is very relevant to a business around slowly deforming materials to shape them

But such beautiful complications!

It is actually quite simple per step. The complexity comes in the volume of operations at the same time. Thats what blows my mind.

Honestly, this technique is as old as dirt. It's just planishing. We have been doing it for millenia. The only thing that's new here is doing it with a robot instead of a skilled artisan. Don't get me wrong here. It's cool. It's just not new and it's not going to be the future of manufacturing.

⁠@@ColonelSandersLiteexcept “artisans” couldn’t make parts with aerospace precision lmao. And there is no one “future of manufacturing” dummy. There are obvious applications where this has advantage.

​@@ColonelSandersLite yes, exactly right.

I was impressed by the fact that they reinforce the initial code with machine learning by scanning and assessing the actual outcome and comparing it to the desired digitally modelled outcome. They have allowed that the software can self-improve to account for all of the factors that would make it an impossibly long task to hard code them in by design at the start. This way, the software can be installed on robots with greater and lesser degrees of deflection and imperfections, and work on different qualities of material automatically by self-calibrating and automatically incorporating software correction factors that adjust for all of those sort of hidden variables.

I'm an unprofessional software developer

i hope it stays a great hobby or your software becomes lucrative! ;D@@mattclayton8474

Ya, that's not a CEO, it's a small business owner. They started the company, they aren't just administrators or managers.

This is how all great companies start…with a leader who knows what his company actually does.

​@ireallyreallyhategoogle 2mins into video says Ed is the CEO, but you really hate Google yet use a Google owned app so I wonder who's correct

​@@SuzukiKid400... and is excited about it.

It’s a smaller company… this is how it should be but it never is… usually the head of companies don’t understand anything except putting up a good image

It's awesome when someone just clicks

That was my favorite too 😂 they were all so happy

Has the soul of an educator and someone who wants others to grow

Exactly what I was thinking, this is the ideal interaction between a knowledgable teacher and a passionate student@@SecretMarsupial

21:20 The CEO was also surprised he knew what part it was he was discussing 😅

And you could see how excited the employee was to explain things

​@TannerCh lol I'm so sure. He just simply explained. You act like he had a huge smile, looked to his boss and said "for real!? No foolin'? Thanks boss for letting me explain"

@@kitten-whisperer I'm relatively confident that is the point jonathan was trying to make.

The employee was concerned about divulging intellectual property.

it wasnt that it was he was concerned if he was allowed to share company secrets they work so hard on.

Same!!

What does a person normally study to design and implement these elaborate automated factory lines? they're everywhere these days and make most of our stuff, but I've never seen automation engineering as a major in school, seems like a cross between mechanical and electrical engineering?

Right big big box my old shop is being upgraded 24 new machines an its somethin watching it all come together

@@richmahogany1710 I am someone who works in automation. My career path was 2 yr vocational school for Industrial Electrical, and then a 4 year Electromechanical Maintenance Apprenticeship.

@@richmahogany1710 it depends, most of people I know who work on factory lines are Electrical Engineers. Mechanical Engineers should be able to do it as well with some studying. I think some universities have Industrial Engineering programs where you even study chemical processes as well, I think what you are looking for is that, Industrial Engineering. However, if you can't find it at your local university, you can never go wrong with Electrical Engineering (I am an EE and I might be biased, but the skills gained from my degree allow me to know what's usually going on).

Ok, youtube expert 😂

@@gdgd5194 I always wondered why the TAXI drivers know more about the government and the world's solution to all problems. They need to get out and run the world instead. LMAO Ha ha ha ha !!! All of the Experts are watching RU-vid.

That’s any inventor’s dream 😊

@repentandbelieveinJesusChrist9 jesus these romans were on something i tell ya

in fact, this is the kind of person that i want to explain me stuff, one that is enthusiastic about it

The moment at 26:58 and Destin's reaction is priceless. It made me smile so much because I know that feeling and he expresses it perfectly

real engineer have same spark and enjoyment about something amazing and new to understand until death

Agreed.

Lmao. Meanwhile he probably expected his employee to understand the work better, and do a better job.

I guess the employee had a PhD, too!

Most employee aren’t as smart AND ready for camera

That is a baseless assumption. If a person is smart enough to do a job they better know how to explain what they are doing even in layman's terms. @@semikolondev

the only reason he brought it up was because he thought he was getting into "classified" or proprietary information. They misunderstood I think and thought he was trying to pass off the explaining, but he was really just making sure he wasn't talking about something he shouldn't have been. Kinda like how they wouldn't say what was in their end effector coatings.

Mark looked like he was ready to burst with excitement about the work he was doing!

It tells you something about how hard what they're doing is as well. Even with the amount of detail they're giving here they don't seem the least bit worried that someone is going to replicate their work to compete with them. Like he said, the secret sauce is in the software, in the minute details of the control systems, and that would take a lot of time to figure out even with this video giving you pointers

this process has been developed by some of the largest companies in the country. Lol I think if somebody wanted to push this technology, they would have this guy is just picking up where they left off because he saw the deficiencies and was able to compensate

sharpboy211: innovation comes from "original thought", whether your original thought is based on the successes or failures of other thinkers or comes totally from within your own creativity, based on your accumulated experiences. Always think outside of the box and always ask those around you for their thoughts on your problems, especially if their experiences have absolutely nothing to do with your problems. As a "young engineer" back in the 1980's, I had the original thought to develop a "stylus based" forming system to eliminate permanent tooling for the metal spinning industry; same basic concept, other than the limiting factor that computers and robotics were in their very infancy.

The companies that are protective are being cagey for a reason. Do you know how many technologies our US companies have developed, spent years perfecting, only for them to be stolen & reverse engineered in China?

I also work in aerospace manufacturing but despite the level of engineering and advanced software that surrounds me, I've never done anything as cool as this...darn what a dream it'd be to be good enough to do something like this 😭!!

@@etherreal4393 it really is crazy just how advanced/far weve come with robotics honestly. Before coming into here I was programming super basic 3/4 axis, seeing these 6 axis dual spindle & dual chuck/table machines and all these robots doing perfect tool setting/deburring/etc was mind blowing at first. But this stuff on here is even another level

Welcome to the New Age.

That, plus Destin's incredible enthusiasm (and courtesy towards his subjects) are what makes these episodes so stinkin' FUN to watch!

​@@the4llfodrlet's not assume that they are protecting trade secrets. It appears as they are not. Yes, you are correct- he checked with the ceo to gain permission to discuss the subject matter. Not only did he approve, the approval was swift and without stipulation. There was a slight pause, I feel you have noticed also, but appeared to quell the initial resistance, whatever the reason. I absolutely LOVE this video and the members of humanity who are very good example of what is part of "the shift". We're within a paradigm shift, you know? It's so incredibly beautiful that I'm having a hard time typing. The depths of connections made as attempt to articulate the experiences I have when I make connections that are aligned with TRUTH. As there is but One. As connections are made, much data is processed. Imagine that the connections aligned with truth are, in fact, actually energy of some form or another. Energy in motion. Or, e-motion. Same thing. And, POWERFUL! With tears in my eyes, flutter in my heart, quiver in my hand, and a certainty equal that of God, themselves, anchoring me in the core of the planet as I deliver these words, standing proudly - without a smidgen of sway considered, no matter what attempts to make me falter - the world will bring the energy of humanity- 8,000,000,000,000 strong, all bringing abundant forces to express, apply, and hail towards me with fury, their "truths". And they will fall. Miserably. I cannot take credit for these words. They're given to me and I am equally you. What is mine is yours. This video is gloriously and abundantly representative of the current future becoming realized. Transparency, accountability, and integrity are at the forefront of the New Earth. If you know, you know. Grand Rising, Ricky

As an employee I agree, from the mindset of a CEO or more importantly an owner of a business, Ide imagine that its more risky. Its not about showing appreciation or holding back shine, its about protecting IP. If this were live, the CEO would probably be talking, or some representative of the brand itself.

​@@the4llfodrThe concept itself is actually pretty simple, it's just very complicated to calculate in practice.

Yea, I was asking my self that question the whole video until they got to that part. It is pretty crazy to think about, considering for millenia we did the best to work around that with heat, hammer, and an anvil.

That was my notion too. Using it for custom one-off work would be incredible.

💯

The first step in robots that can make robots to make robots.

26:12 is the timestamp :)

Destin is speaking at genius level when discussing the forming processes, tools, robots, materials used, etc., and so deep into geek-speak that the topic and project still remained fascinating. Several times during the discussions, I could actually see the "light come on over Destin's Brain Housing Group' to the point, I thought they were going to either offer him a job or walk him out thinking he might be spoofing them. Outstanding effort again Destin!

humans are social creatures. theres nothing more satisfying than going way too deep discussing potential practical mechanisms or methods with practical people, or creative notions that stimulate precise emotions with creative people, or emotional stimuli that influence behaviour with sociologists, or introducing unexpected ideas in thought experiments with philosophers. just pushing the envelope to find new boundaries with like minded people. what could be more exciting?

humans are social creatures. theres nothing more satisfying than going way too deep discussing potential practical mechanisms or methods with practical people, or creative notions that stimulate precise emotions with creative people, or emotional stimuli that influence behaviour with sociologists, or introducing unexpected ideas in thought experiments with philosophers. just pushing the envelope to find new boundaries with like minded people. what could be more exciting?

He has that finger point down to a science.

I am no engineer, “only” an it-specialist. How can that be so freaking complicated? In my opinion you just need a bendable frame and two ballpoint tips to pinch and dent, isn’t it? Maybe I am extremely dumb or maybe missing something 😅

@@MrBro51 You are definitely missing something and a lot of it is in the process.

⁠@@MrBro51I’m just an IT specialist too, but I can easily see how difficult the control system and feedback loop have to be in order to allow for this kind of precision forming. To gain an appreciation for it, see if there is a local First Robotics Competition team (probably at a local high school) in your area and become a mentor, most of them are constantly looking for good people to help out the team. The control systems in use on FRC robots are much more simplistic than this, but it takes a lot of programming to make them perform their functions correctly.

The software code alone has got to be pretty intense. It ain't no Gcode for your 3D FFM printer! I'm curious to know what language they coded in.

100% agree. I rarely come across something where the more I think about it, the more insanely complex and brilliant I realize it is. This is absolutely amazing.

That's what happens when you get designers and engineers talking and not PR mouth pieces

exactly - they can use the sheet to the fullest rather than compromize the design. rad! 🎉

Und ist nicht für die Serienproduktion geeignet.

Machina Labs You are BOSS LEVEL!

This is what it looks like when the founder has control of the company. Companies should live and die with their founders IMO. Make room for something new. We don't need companies to last hundreds of years, that seems to cause only problems.

+1 on this!

Yeah almost seems like that guy in particular enjoys this stuff so much he'd do it for free.

The point where they said 7 axis optimization problem was when I realized that they aren't just doing "simple" kinematics, they are doing linear algebra stuff. The optimization with material conservation and rigidity optimizing just took it over the top. No wonder this has taken 30 years of development for even small scale commercialization.

riblets and laminar flow from owl wings transferred to metal for faster and efficient surfaces!

Maybe they could use another employee to help them along?

What is an optical lockout? I thought maybe it was in reference to areas of the machine that the company wouldn't want the public to see...

Definitely! So fascinating.

Nice to see you here. Love your videos too.

Geeks geeking out is always fun.

My first job was machining injection mold bases. That company did the mold for the first plastic hangers we still use today. It was always funny seeing those be made. We did so much more precise machining that making those seemed so out of place in the shop. Injection molds really are cool and I agree seeing him do an in depth dive on them would be amazing.

I'm dreaming, but eventually rotomolding as well!

yeah, would love to see injection moulding of rubber parts!

This this this!

I am an industrial maintenance technician that works for a plastic injection molding company. Last place I worked for did plastic extrusion but this injection is so much cooler.

Thanks for this comment

Some also use belt drive.

Many others use them too, "harmonic drive" is another name for the concept. And of course for linear movement ball-screws are essentially backlash-free as well. None of that is infinitely stiff though and neither are the actual beams between the joints which in the end results in the need to do the corrections in the control system. Another cool/useful (also sometimes problematic) thing about the strain wave gears is that you can't back-drive them so holding a position (when there is not too much dynamic load) requires very little power.

Now I want@@smartereveryday to cover strain wave / harmonic drive gearing concepts in detail!

No kidding. I wonder how often he gets job offers? "Hey Destin, wanna be our CEO?"

Destin has been getting smarter every day for quite a while now. He is a pretty smart dude

@@triankhan But what keeps my attention are all those "oh wow!" moments. No matter how much he has learned to date, there's ALWAYS something new to discover, even in seemingly "obvious" situations. And his enthusiasm and joy at those moments is infectious. ◡̈

@@triankhanHe's a perpetual thinking machine.

@@Pants4096 if you aint learning, you aint living

super cool

Kuka now is owned by China, yes?

Are the contacts gold plated to prevent corrosion? They must spend a lot of time exposed to the environment.

@@tjm2212 to be more specific, I only machined out the part. I saw the finished part with the pins inside a a handful of times but I believe they were gold plated and it would make sense in applications like these.

Good luck to you!

Why is this useful vs 3d printing?

​@@Idiomatickyou cant tree d print sheet like that. Layers will not join since you need a certain thickness. You sometimes want the least amount of material for a given shape.

PhD in engineering? Just... why? I am actually curious what lead you to that decision. Everyone I know was talked into it by the school (they can't get enough PhD students in Engineering because no one even considers it viable or useful) and all except one didn't finish it.

@@Arrynek01 I'm from Germany and it is actually quite common to get a PhD in engineering here. But it's also structured differently than e.g. in the U.S. I think. You aren't a student anymore but basically work full time on your own research project, supervise students and do some teaching. Also you already get paid normally, not the highest in the industry, but not bad either. For me it was a combination of that I like the people I work with, I like the project and I like the relative freedom and responsibility, plus some other points

What is an optical lockout? Google wasn't very helpful.

@@connorsterrett you are not allow to film it (Classified, IP, etc. )

@@bagnon Oh, I thought it was an optial "safety shutdown" in case someone got into a dangerous area.

@@svankensen True, they do have light curtains that shut down for safety if you get too close. Maybe that is what he really meant as you suggest.

@@bagnonI’m fairly certain that Destin was referring to light curtains and other similar non contact optical safety features when he said optical lockout.

It does a very good job at restriking those learning fires that have been dormant in my head for years.

sure

Metal is metal and metal deforms

Can you rig the IRS? 👁️👃👁️ 🙏

What kind of not-a-wheelchair parts can you make with one of these bad boys??

You ruined my iPhone 6s bro! Remember that jerryrig

When I saw the thumbnail notification, I thought it was hydroforming. As a design engineer who worked in machine tools and tooling design just out of college I am seriously geeking out.

It's incredibly enjoyable being somebody in a technical field like that, and being able to talk to somebody who can understand the implications of what you're saying. Those dude loved talking to Destin.

pretty common theme around destin, a large part is due to his background, but he's REALLY listening to these people and absorbing everything they're telling him, he does far better journalism than any professional out there to date, and brady may be right there behind him @@markjacobson4248

I think they're enjoying seeing him reach the same moments of deeper understanding they've had as well. It might be similar to when things "click together" when I'm helping students struggling with something. Sometimes those moments of working to fit pieces of information together are a better teaching tool than getting in someone's way and interrupting their thought process.

​@@chasm9557 💯 having spent time teaching, the biggest joy was seeing their eyes light up with a realization just before they articulated it...

DITTO ... Viewed In Maryland .. COOL STuff to say the least

Agreed. I hope they get tons more business and engineers applying to work with them after videos like this. A cool one to see would be something like Meade Telescopes. They use GPS and star alignment to identify where you are and then help you to see different planets and stars and track them with the earth's movement. I remember going to the factory like 20 years ago and it blew my mind. Also the baths they put the glass under to make it so more light comes through and isn't reflected off.

Guys let’s move this comment up!!

How though? 3D printing already does this. The only benefit is maybe for actual stress tests, but even then, since it's a completely different process, I doubt stress tests would really be equivalent. This also clearly has limits to the shapes it can do and can't exactly create solid parts, just shells of them. I don't know how this is cheaper or quicker than either 3D printing or just molding a bunch of iterations the old fashioned way.

​@@peoplez129Well you can use the final material in your prototype, but without spending tons of money on molds (which you might never use again).

@@peoplez129 You're right that It's probably not cheaper or quicker than 3D printing, but the physical properties and materials are different. Most grades of steel that are common in sheet metal are not possible to 3D print. The layer separation makes properties like deflection different. Porosity of 3D printed parts changes hardness, density, and brittlness. Also size. You cannot 3D print an entire car hood like they showed here. At least not readily available on the market. You can "Roboform" in the exact material you want your final part to be, which is rarely the case in 3D printing. Don't get me wrong, I love 3D printing for fast iterative design, but it has it's limitations, and sheet metal is one of them.

@@mtl10 great explanation. This appears to be ideal for prototyping where you’d typically stamp parts. Not even taking into account the material possibilities (limitations) with 3D printing, 3D printing is ideally suited to prototype parts that would typically be machined, not stamped. Once something gets past the prototyping phase, it would then make sense to create your stamping dies to take it into production.

​@@dipren443 wouldn't call this ideal. This is taking techniques from cnc manufacturing and applying them to stamp manufacturing. It's probably not right to fault them exactly though, they're doing what they know. There are just better ways to do this. It would be better to have a selection of various "hammers and anvils" so to speak and have the 2 robots progressively (from rough to detailed) work the metal that way. There's even the possibility of dynamically hydroforming, though that would require rigorous safety procedures. This is honestly one of the least ideal ways of manufacturing sheet metal. There are reasons people abandon this after sinking serious research into it. Sure it can be done, but all things considered, other than just doing it this way for the sake of it, this is a pretty awful way to do this.

Ya that was my first thought too. This is like a extremely fancy CNC english wheel kinda

Same. Like a nearly infinite throat english wheel, and moving the tool instead of moving the part. Very cool to see the whole sheet shrink when it comes out of the clamps too! Great video, love this series!

Actually, the manual process which most resembles this is called repoussé. It's mostly confined to small-scale art projects, but I have seen some larger German works.

I'm a software engineer for a robotics company and this video was pretty straightforward. Last video blew MY mind :)

​@@FryGuy1013The irony.

@@FryGuy1013 I'm a mechanical engineer who works in the aerospace industry, and I can safely say that BOTH videos blew my mind.

@@OverTheVoidsNext time they will put passengers on board, while robots will be finishing to make the wings of the plane. Making aircraft 100+ times more sophisticated in part count that any car, still way more reliable - looks like you are using black magic). So you must have a lot of very smart guys, much smarter than those designing cars or making software)

Have you ever used an English wheel?

I guess this is the part that still confuses me as to *why* it's faster than computing can allow, is that a matter of processing power actually not being fast enough (yet), or is it something else I missed? Curious if anyone can take a stab at answering this.... maybe ELI5 lol

@@JoshDauer If i had to guess it's because it isn't simply rendering geometry but following a sequence of steps. If you go back a bit to his hemisphere example, simply rolling out a hemisphere would give you really thin walls at the edge of the sheet, so to get a regular thickness they push material outwards. What i'm getting at is that the calculations to go from a model (the parts spec sizes and thicknesses) to a finished part aren't as simple as 3d printing where you're simply depositing the amount of material you need. They are actually deforming material and there could be many different ways to deform it and going through those possibilities is what takes time.

@@JoshDauer TLDR, the software knows from the beginning what the final part should look like. When it makes an adjustment to the metal, it measures how the input parameters (force, angle, etc) compare to what it actually wanted to happen. If the result wasn't right, it will adjust. It's like cooking to taste. Cook ingredient, taste, add salt, taste, needs more salt, taste again, done.

@@JoshDauer The compute required to test a part is potentially very large depending on what you need. Printing a part and testing it in a few hours is a good deal in some scenarios. I'd want this machine on site though, if i'm in the rocket industry for example, rather than waiting for test parts to get shipped to me.

Man, it would be so interesting to hear them get into the software side of things a lot more. I get that Destin focuses on the engineering side because that's where his expertise is but there could totally be another channel hosted by a computer science expert that focuses on the software. I'm not expecting the company to show actual source code, of course, but even a very simplified look into what's going on and what kind of software stack they're using would be great.

It's the program where the magic is. I bet they wouldn't be so keen to talk about that.

i mean they can’t give you everything lol. That software looked extremely well thought out. That kind of stuff takes a good 5 yrs to develop properly. And then another 5 in order to have a proper rig set up and working.

If I made something this cool I'd be bursting to tell like that eureka guy. I wonder how upset their legal guy is.

Ive a friend who does with hammers every day :) this is just a robotised version of what car repairmen have done for 100 years-

@@AndrewTSq Yes. But that doesn’t diminish what they’ve accomplished. It gives you an idea of how good your motor control system is. Brain, brainstem, spinal cord, physical plant (body), creation of motor output commands and all the modeling, sensory feedback, updating your nervous system does continually. Your buddy can do his meatal working sitting, standing, moving or being moved by an external force to some degree as well. Truly astonishing to think about.

I was thinking of it more as very precise hammer on dolly. Or maybe progressive bead rolling. It is fascinating nonetheless. Greetings from very close to the geographic center of the USA, from an American "Boomer"

It's also very similar to planishing, except with computer controlled robot arms instead of a planishing hammer and stake. That technique has been around for centuries and was used to make medieval suits of armour.

All these guys seemed really excited to talk to someone they didn't have dumb it down for

@jongoode3296 I doubt they get many that are as educated and curious.

Ed, Babak and Mark are great teachers! Thank you for saying nice things.

He's not humble: he's and attention seeker

​@@iutu8235how lmao

@@iutu8235 Are you his therapist or what? Achieve anything close to what this man has done in his life and stay that humble, I dare you.

@@iutu8235 LMAO I come here to learn, not hate on people. Destin is too nice for you to say those things