FABRICATE 2014

Fabio Gramazio, Matthias Kohler, Silke Langenberg, fabricate negotiating design and making, 2014, pg 70-76

DIRK KROLIKOWSKI, DAMIAN ELEY, The Leaden Hall Building: Design For Fabrication – digital work Flow and downstream Fabrication system, University College London, ARUP Group LTD

Through the introduction of advanced digital tools, such as sophisticated information modelling and robotic fabrication methods into the workflow, designers have gained increased control over the final fabrication of components and the interface definition of the assembly. The paper discusses the investigation and findings on the integration of digital tools into the project The Leaden hall Building and concludes with observations on downstream aspects, such as the way in which advanced CAD-CAM, including robotic milling, plays a key role in digital design and fabrication.

Fabio Gramazio, Matthias Kohler, Silke Langenberg, fabricate negotiating design and making, 2014, pg 78-84

JELLE FERINA, ASBJORN SONDERGAARD, Fabricating architectural Volume: stereotomic investigations in robotic craft

The RDM vault presents a collaboration between Matthias Rippmann and Silvan Oesterle, initiated by Jelle Feringa. Robotic hot-wire cutting (RHWC), coupled with the development of the PyRAPID CAM software dedicated to RHWC, allows the application of a truly voluminous approach to the production of the trait7the RDM vault is comprised of fig.1.

Stone cutting. While stone cutting is a mechanical and time-intensive process, the effectiveness of abrasive diamond wire cutting, traditionally a demolition method, is easily proportionate to the speed-up (an order of two) achieved by RHWC. Further research took place in the summer of 2013 at the marble quarry of Carrara, in cooperation with industry partner Marmi egraniti d’Italia, one of Italy’s largest quarrie.

OPTICUT: projects that dealt with topology optimization (TO)and hot-wire cutting. It was instantly clear that while topology optimization motivated the need for sophisticated form work, hot-wire cutting could provide these in architectural proportions, at a modest cost, and, as such, offer substantial complementary advantages. Opticut initiated a dual investigation program to explore the capacity for economically efficient production of advanced formwork for topology-optimized spatial concrete structures using robotic hot-wire cutting (RHWC) of EPS form-work.

ODICO: Following a grant received from the Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation, Odico now heads the 3-year research project, Blade runner, which seeks to develop an economically efficient production of freeform doubly curved geometry through the development of robotic flexible-blade cutting with heated blades, in collaboration with the Development Department of 3XN Architects, GXN, the Technical University of Denmark and a number of building industry partners.

PYRAPID: The projects described in this article fueled the development of custom software, dedicated to RHWC and RDWS, PyRAPID. PyRAPID is built on top of PythonOCC, with the open-source OpenCasCade CAD kernel as its main dependency (figs.13,14).The application automatically clusters the faces so that they can be cut in a single sweeping motion, and generates a tool-path optimized for extending the reachability of the end-effector and computes the inverse kinematics from that pose. As the tool orientation has two degrees of freedom (sliding and rotating) over the axis of the wire, the key is to leverage this freedom, as it allows for considerable optimization of the reach of the robot.

Fabio Gramazio, Matthias Kohler, Silke Langenberg, fabricate negotiating design and making, 2014, pg 160-166

Institute for Computational Design, Institute of Building Structures & Structural Design,Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Stuttgart, ICD/ITKE Research Pavillion,Robotic Carbon and Glass Fibre Winding, Stuttgart, 2012

“ In the current project, we are investigating how we can use the technology developed, robotic filament winding on a minimal linear framework, for segmented composite shells. This research agenda resulted from the quite mundane experience that, despite its very low weight of just 320kg, the2012 pavilion with its 8-meter continuous span was impossible to transport, except maybe by helicopter. So this year, the size constraint for the composite modules is the loading volume of a truck, and we are trying to further develop the concept of mouldless winding by using two cooperating robots”

Fabio Gramazio, Matthias Kohler, Silke Langenberg, fabricate negotiating design and making, 2014, pg 168-174

AMMARKALO, MICHAEL JAKE NEWSUM, WES MCGEE, Performing: exploring incremental sheet metal Forming methods For generating low-cost, highly customized components

This research utilizes the Single Point Incremental Forming (SPIF) process to produce mass customized, double-curved (both positive and negative Gaussian curvature), three-dimensional forms from sheet metal. These forms are produced at a scale that suggests their use as cladding elements in a building envelope. Typically, the stock is formed using around tool (fig.1) that can be attached to a robotic arm or a CNC machine. The tool moves along a programmed tool path, as it gradually steps down into the stock, until forming is complete.

Fabio Gramazio, Matthias Kohler, Silke Langenberg, fabricate negotiating design and making, 2014, pg 175-182

KADRI TAMRE, MARJAN COLLETTI, GEORG GRASSER, ALLISON WEILER, (Fr) agile materiality: approximating uncertain Fabrication processes

This paper discusses research that explores the potential of digital fabrication through the use of robotically controlled processing of phase-change polymers in the production of porous, filamentous and fibrous structures. It investigates the complex material behavior of such phase-change materials while combining generic robotic manipulators, custom end effectors and optimizing the performance of the resulting structure through physical–digital feedback. It investigates the workflow of combining material performance and manipulation with robotic fabrication.

Fabio Gramazio, Matthias Kohler, Silke Langenberg, fabricate negotiating design and making, 2014, pg 184-191

STEFANO ANDREANI, MARTIN BECHTHOLD, [r]evolving brick: geometry and performance innovation in ceramic building systems through design robotics

The study researches mass-customization methods that permit novel ornamental effects in brick cladding systems, and, at the same time, point towards new sustainable design opportunities for cost-effective, self-shading façades. This paper presents an integrated workflow for the development of robotically configured ruled-surface brick units and their digitally informed aggregations. Computational design methods and robotic fabrication technologies are integrated into traditional methods of masonry production and construction. The investigation explores the formal possibilities of clay shaping by means of a con-trolled robotic wire cutting method in the ceramic extrusion process. Thus, related configurations can be generated by aggregating these units.

Fabio Gramazio, Matthias Kohler, Silke Langenberg, fabricate negotiating design and making, 2014, pg 194-198

JORIS LAARMAN, SASA JOKIĆ, PETR NOVIKOV, LUIS E. FRAGUADA, ARETI MARKOPOULOU, Anti-gravity additive manufacturing, IAAC Barcelona

The current paper describes a new method of additive manufacturing using a robotic arm. The research project presented is based on a technique that allows the creation of 3D objects on any given working surface independently of its inclination and smoothness, and without a need for additional support structures. By using rapidly hardening thermo-set resins in combination with innovative extrusion technology, it is possible to 3D-print double-curved lines of varying diameter without the need for support structures.

Fabio Gramazio, Matthias Kohler, Silke Langenberg, fabricate negotiating design and making, 2014, pg 199-206

XAVIER DEKESTELIER, ENRICO DINI, GIOVANNI CESARETTI, LAURENT PAMBAGUIAN, The Design Of a Lunar Outpost: 3D Printing regolith as a construction technique For environmental shielding on the moon

The main objective of the study was to investigate whether 3D printing of moon dust is a viable construction technology for possible future lunar colonization. The Perceptual Robotics Laboratory (PERCRO) of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna provided the know-how for control systems and robotics and Monolite UK delivered the printing technology. The 3D-printing process uses, just like all powder-based 3D printing processes, its own powder as a support structure. The problem with this approach for large-scale structures is that, in this case, the dome would need to be excavated and hollowed out after it has been 3D printed. Therefore, an additional inflatable structure is envisioned that would serve as a support on which the dome can be constructed. This inflatable support dome is a high-pressurized rib structure, on which a set of robotic printers can start to deposit layers of regolith and subsequently solidify them.

Fabio Gramazio, Matthias Kohler, Silke Langenberg, fabricate negotiating design and making, 2014, pg 208-216

MARTA MALR-ALEMANY, JORDI PORTELL, Fab Bots: Research in additive manufacturing For Architecture

The growing interest in 3D printing and other additive manufacturing (AM) processes in most design-related domains has still found few responses in architecture. The range of proposals show the innovative potential of using customized robotic tools for building architecture with additive processes. FabClay explores 3D printing with clay. Material samples are made by attaching a custom deposition head for paste-like materials to an existing CNC machine or industrial robot.

Fluid Cast explores the opportunities of fast solidification of phase-changing materials (like wax) in water, calibrating the precision of a digitally controlled deposition and its unpredictable behavior in fluid dynamic environments. This project proposes building floating large-scale structures using a swarm of underwater deposition robots.

Fabio Gramazio, Matthias Kohler, Silke Langenberg, fabricate negotiating design and making, 2014, pg 217-224

RYAN LUKE JOHNS, Augmented Materiality: modelling with material indeterminacy, Greyshed and Princeton university

By combining augmented reality technologies with real-time computer simulation, sensory feedback and robotic fabrication tools, new workflows enable the architect to design spontaneously and intuitively with seemingly stochastic material processes while managing the complex performance criteria associated with ‘highly informed’ design. By sending only one movement command at a time to the robotic manipulator, the computer software provides a real-time visualization of the robot’s tool paths, and allows the designer to modify these tool paths (and thus the design) at any stage of the machining process. In order to experiment with live manipulation of a design during the fabrication process, a prototypical milling technique was developed that allows the operator to see and modify the robot’s tool paths in real-time. In this set-up, an augment-ed reality interface provides the operator with a live preview of the robot’s projected tool paths, and allows the user to modify those tool paths by tapping on the screen in the area where he would like to focus the mill.

Fabio Gramazio, Matthias Kohler, Silke Langenberg, fabricate negotiating design and making, 2014, pg 225-231

NORMAN HACK, WILLI VIKTOR LAUER, FABIO GRAMAZIO, MATTHIAS KOHLER, SILKE LANGENBERG, Mesh-mould: robotically Fabricated spatial meshes as concrete Form work and reinforcement, Future cities laboratory, Singapore-eth center for global environmental sustainability

This research investigates how computer-controlled robots can be used to shortcut these two processes. A novel spatial robotic ‘weaving’ method of a tensile active material that simultaneously acts as the form-defining mould folds these two separate requirements, reinforcement and formwork, into one single robotic fabrication process. This paper describes a robotic fabrication method that combines the two most cost- and labour-intensive aspects of concrete construction into one single process.

Fabio Gramazio, Matthias Kohler, Silke Langenberg, fabricate negotiating design and making, 2014, pg 244-248

MIKE SILVER, Peripatetic Fabrication: Architecture, Co-robotics and Machine Vision, University of Buffalo

This essay explores the potential impact of situationally aware, walking machines on architectural design and construction. New research looks at how networked devices equipped with emerging machine vision technologies could work cooperatively with humans in complex, outdoor environments. Driverless Building Blocks; Initial research conducted at Ball State University considered the robotic manipulation of objects at both the scale of individual bricks and at the scale of a small community composed of prefabricated housing modules.

Interviews with job supervisors who identified hod carrying and on-site waste disposal as potential work for robots. Machine parts, including all motor casings, payload designs, and exoskeletal sup-ports, were custom-built using fused deposition modelling technology (FDM) and advanced 3D metal sintering.

Fabio Gramazio, Matthias Kohler, Silke Langenberg, fabricate negotiating design and making, 2014, pg 267-272

AMMAR MIRJAN, FABIO GRAMAZIO, MATTHIAS KOHLER, Building with Flying Robots, Architecture and Digital Fabrication, Department of Architecture, ETH Zurich

Aerial robotic construction offers a new approach to architecture. The research presented here investigates the design potential and material relationship between architecture and construction using flying machines. The ARCAS project focuses on aerial assembly by autonomous helicopters equipped with robotic arms. Aerial robots, similar to the industrial robot, are generic and can be equipped with different tools to transport and manipulate material in different ways, but the key subject here is weight. The payload capacities of flying machines are limited and their maneuverability is greatly influenced by the load.

Fabio Gramazio, Matthias Kohler, Silke Langenberg, fabricate negotiating design and making, 2014, pg 274-280

OLIVER DAVID KRIEG, DAVID CORREA, STEFFEN REICHERT, TOBIAS SCHWINN Hygroskin: Meteorosensitive Pavilion, Institute for Computational Design

The HygroSkin project explores a novel mode of climate responsive architecture based on the combination and interrelationships of material-inherent behavior, computational morphogenesis and robotic manufacturing. Embedded within robotically fabricated, lightweight structural components made of elastically bent plywood panels, the responsive wood-composite apertures adjust the envelope’s porosity in direct feedback to changes in ambient relative humidity.