Tool Macgyvering: A Novel Framework for Combining Tool Substitution and Construction
This addresses the problem of robotic adaptability in tool use for applications like household assistance, though it is incremental as it builds on existing macgyvering concepts.
The paper tackles the problem of robots solving tasks with missing tools by inventively using available objects, introducing a framework that combines tool substitution and construction with an arbitration strategy, achieving 96.67% accuracy in tool construction and 83.33% accuracy in arbitration.
Macgyvering refers to solving problems inventively by using whatever objects are available at hand. Tool Macgyvering is a subset of macgyvering tasks involving a missing tool that is either substituted (tool substitution) or constructed (tool construction), from available objects. In this paper, we introduce a novel Tool Macgyvering framework that combines tool substitution and construction using arbitration that decides between the two options to output a final macgyvering solution. Our tool construction approach reasons about the shape, material, and different ways of attaching objects to construct a desired tool. We further develop value functions that enable the robot to effectively arbitrate between substitution and construction. Our results show that our tool construction approach is able to successfully construct working tools with an accuracy of 96.67%, and our arbitration strategy successfully chooses between substitution and construction with an accuracy of 83.33%.