Envisioning the Robot Design Studio

The design studio encourages communication, creativity, and ideation. Often the domain of architects, industrial, and graphic designers, the studio environment has been shown to be effective in other domains, from software design to public relations firms. Robotics, with its necessarily interdisciplinary nature, is an ideal field for permeation by design studio culture. The Design Studio Anyone who has visited an architect’s office has experienced a design studio. They are characterized by open, collaborative workspaces and ideally, a high level of creative energy. Most design studios contain an abundance of supporting and in-process design material – drawings pinned to walls, physical models, and clippings from periodicals which have triggered one idea or another. Many designers choose to work in the studio environment because it encourages spontaneous, frequent communication between designers. It is worth addressing the distinction between design studios in education and industry. A designer’s office exists to optimize creativity and workflow, and perhaps profit as well. Undergraduate architecture education co-opts several of the professional studio’s features, but ends up with a more competitive, isolated version. The aim is to provide students with the skills necessary to thrive as designers, but the “studio culture ” that is created is often less productive and focused than we might find in a professional studio. Certain research labs bear a resemblance to design studios but are often less focused on materiality. The design studio, with its finished and in-process artifacts, encourages cross-pollination between designers and between projects. Often, in informal sessions, designers will “pin up ” their work for others to review and collaborate [4]. A key difference between the design studio and the research lab is the presence of formal critiquing sessions, or crits. Crits encourage thoughtful preparation and presentation, and often serve to kindle new design ideas or directions. In a typical design studio, the crit can help designers evaluate each other’s work in a more holistic fashion than through the day to day communication about design details. Wolf writes that, “designers benefit because the crit provides insight that can make them better designers. ” [7