What is Fab Lab
A FabLab (Fabrication Laboratory) is a small-scale workshop with computer controlled tools with the aim to make "almost anything". FabLab is a disruptive technology. In the same way the micro computers changed computing, desktop fabbers (FabLab machines) may change manufacturing as a result of which people could produce things at home or within small organizations.
FabLabs can serve different objectives: (i) Rapid prototyping of industrial products or (ii) Low cost and on-demand manufacturing from "open source designs" for both hobbyist and serious use. Both these purposes include empowering individuals to create devices that are adapted to specific needs.
FabLabs also can be part of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) communities, cultures and projects. Anyone form irrespective of profession or background, with basic knowledge of science, could be trained in the FabLab and acquire skills for designing and fabricating objects / products of his need and liking. It is an extremely versatile platform for creativity and transforming ideas to physical prototypes.
FabLabs are closely aligned with MIT’s Center for Bits & Atoms (CBA) which is engaged in intense research into next generation tools and software, as well as fabrication work flows and processes pushing against digital-analog boundaries. CBA is charting a research road map that traverses from machines in a FabLab that make things, to machines that make parts of machines, to machines that self-reproduce, to building with digital materials, to materials that are programmable and can turn themselves into parts.
