Paper

Introducing Robotics to Students Through Novel Architectural Fabrication

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Abstract

In spring 2021, a research-based graduate robotics studio was developed. The question posed to the students was: how robotic construction can facilitate new and innovative architectural construction methods? Each student was tasked with developing a new construction workflow using a custom-designed tool or end-effector attached to the end of a robotic arm. Robotic arms enable and encourage the use and creation of custom end-effectors or tools to create new manufacturing methods. The development of new end- effectors and construction workflows allows for greater customization and variability of the fabricated outputs. The studio began with an examination of the field of architectural robotics. This was facilitated through a preliminary precedent study where the students were asked to document ten conference papers through a brief description of their relevance, how the investigation could be expanded, as well as their associated images and diagrams. This study aided in the student’s understanding of what is possible in addition to the common materials and end-effectors used in robotic fabrication. The goal was to narrow their focus and cultivate a novel research question. In conjunction with this study, the students were tasked with small robotic fabrication projects to understand how to develop a toolpath for the robotic arm to follow using McNeel’s Grasshopper and the plugin KUKA|prc. The students spent four weeks of the semester working on their custom tool and fabrication process. These tests were documented with videos, photographs, and written observations. This allowed each student to create small mock-ups of their projects before refining and creating the final full-scale projects. These new construction workflows looked for ways to limit waste, expedite fabrication processes, and generate customization with purpose. The students’ work investigated robotic clay 3D printing, aluminum embossing, and sewn fabric as means for concrete formwork and thermoforming informed by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to generate optimized acrylic panels that control airflow. Each student was asked to document their projects with a 600-word academic research paper with a minimum of five figures explaining a novel process. When the semester began, the students had no experience with fabrication or robotics. When the studio concluded, all felt comfortable using the machinery independently. This paper will provide an overview of the course, and its assignments, discuss the students’ resulting work, and reflect on the course and what was learned.

Keywords: Robotics, Digital Fabrication, Formwork, Additive Manufacturing, Design-Build

How to Cite:

Hunt, E., (2023) “Introducing Robotics to Students Through Novel Architectural Fabrication”, Building Technology Educators’ Society 2023(1), 319-326. doi: https://doi.org/10.7275/btes.1969