Robotic metal aggregations

Abstract

The recent convergence of computational design and digital fabrication has made new forms of architectural materialization possible. A workshop conducted at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology investigated how differentiated lightweight metal structures may be designed and fabricated under these new conditions. The workshop aim was to complete three such structures; each one is aggregated from aluminum profiles that are robotically assembled according to computationally driven geometric logics. The key challenge was to enable participants, assumed to lack programming and robotic fabrication experience, to design and construct their structures within imposed time constraints. This paper describes the subsequent development of accessible computational design tools and a robust robotic fabrication method for the workshop, and highlights the key decisions taken with their implementation. The workshop results are discussed and the design tools evaluated with respect to them. The paper concludes by recommending an approach to developing computational design tools which emphasizes the importance of usability and integration with the fabrication process. © 2014, The Association for Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia (CAADRIA), Hong Kong.