Human–robot collaboration: a fabrication framework for the sequential design and construction of unplanned spatial structures

ABSTRACT

Robots in traditional fabrication applications act as passive participants in the process of creation—simply performing a set of predetermined actions to materialize a completed design. We propose a novel bottom-up design framework in which robots are instead given the opportunity to participate centrally within a creative design process. This paper describes how two 6-axis industrial robotic arms were used to cooperatively aggregate a collection of solid spherical units. The branching spatial structure being constructed is unplanned at the outset of this process, and is instead designed in pseudo-realtime during construction. This ‘design-as-you-build’ approach relies on robotic input, in the form of path-planning constraints, in tandem with human evaluation and decision-making. The resulting structure emerges from a human–robot design collaboration operating within the specified physical domain.

KEYWORDS:

• Cooperative assembly
• robotic fabrication
• human–robot collaboration
• spatial structures
• sequential design

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the Metropolis Project of Princeton University, and the Princeton Catalysis Initiative for financially supporting this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Edvard P. G. Bruun is PhD Student working in the Form Finding Lab (Civil and Environmental Engineering Department) and CREATE Laboratory (School of Architecture) at Princeton University. His research interests are based around how robots can be used as the basis for a novel design and fabrication processes used to build creative but efficient discrete-element structures.

Ian Ting is in School of Architecture, Princeton University in Princeton.

Sigrid Adriaenssens is an associate professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Princeton University, where she leads the Form Finding Lab. Her research focuses on lightweight surface systems and how they can be optimized and realised to interact with extreme structural or environmental loading.

Stefana Parascho is an assistant professor in the School of Architecture at Princeton University, where she leads the CREATE laboratory. Her research interest lies at the intersection of design, structure and fabrication, with a focus on robotic fabrication processes and fabrication-informed design.