Distributed Robotic Timber Construction

Abstract

Advances in computational design and robotic building methods have the potential to enable architects to author more sustainable, efficient, and geometrically varied systems that shape our built environment. To fully harness this potential, the inherent relationship of design and building processes requires a fundamental shift in the way we design and how we build. High degree of customization in architectural projects and constantly changing conditions of construction environments pose significant challenges for the implementation of automated construction machines. Beyond traditional, human-inspired, industrial robotic building methods, we present a distributed robotic system where the robotic builders are designed in direct relationship with the material and architecture they assemble. Modular, collaborative, single axis robots are designed to utilize standardized timber struts as a basic building material, and as a part of their locomotion system, to create large-scale timber structures with high degrees of differentiation. The decentralized, multi-robot system uses a larger number of simple machines that collaborate in teams to work in parallel on varying tasks such as material transport, placement, and fixing. The research explores related architectural and robotic typologies to create timber structures with novel aesthetics and performances.