# Tool Macgyvering: Tool Construction Using Geometric Reasoning

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1902.03666 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1902.03666/

## Key facts

- Cited by 7 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 10 Feb 2019.

## Built on by (most cited first, 7 of 7)

- [PhysGame: Uncovering Physical Commonsense Violations in Gameplay Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.01800/) (2024)
- [PACS: A Dataset for Physical Audiovisual CommonSense Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.11130/) (2022)
- [RAPid-Learn: A Framework for Learning to Recover for Handling Novelties in Open-World Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.12493/) (2022)
- [Learning Tool Morphology for Contact-Rich Manipulation Tasks with Differentiable Simulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.02201/) (2022)
- [Understanding Physical Effects for Effective Tool-use](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.14998/) (2022)
- [Creative Problem Solving in Artificially Intelligent Agents: A Survey and Framework](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.10358/) (2022)
- [Designing Tools with Control Confidence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.12630/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

MacGyvering is defined as creating or repairing something in an inventive or improvised way by utilizing objects that are available at hand. In this paper, we explore a subset of Macgyvering problems involving tool construction, i.e., creating tools from parts available in the environment. We formalize the overall problem domain of tool Macgyvering, introducing three levels of complexity for tool construction and substitution problems, and presenting a novel computational framework aimed at solving one level of the tool Macgyvering problem, specifically contributing a novel algorithm for tool construction based on geometric reasoning. We validate our approach by constructing three tools using a 7-DOF robot arm.