A Makerspace Cyber Physical System for Convergence Research

We are in the midst of the fourth industrial revolution, and manufacturers are looking
to digitally transform their processes in order to leverage new technologies such as adap-
tive automation, virtual reality and digital twin driven simulation. A key aspect of this
revolution compared to previous is the increased availability of data and accessibility of
machines throughout the production process enabled by cyber-physical systems (CPS) and
IoT. However, the integration of many devices is challenging, requiring significant capital
and expertise. This can limit smaller players from benefiting from technological gains as
well as stymie research, particularly advanced human-computer-interaction (HCI) investiga-
tions which are becoming increasingly relevant.
Thus in this thesis we develop a framework for CPS creation and communication that
is amenable to the needs of HCI and convergence research. We develop several middleware
components to bridge the communication gap of many common fabrication machines and
other devices. The middleware translates device specific protocols into a shared language to
alleviate the user interface (UI) programs of this responsibility and promote reuse. Addi-
tionally, we develop an extension to the glTF model format to leverage this shared protocol
to enable the UI to load and interact with an arbitrary number of devices in an intuitive
manner at runtime. Finally, we discuss several applications to demonstrate the system’s
utility for research.