A New Machinecraft. Architectural Robots

Prototyping physical artifacts is a fundamental activity for both product development in industrial and engineering design domains and the development of digital fabrication skills. Prototyping is also essential for human-centric problem-solving in design education. Digital fabrication assists in rapid prototype development through computer-aided design and manufacturing tools. Due to the spread of makerspaces like fabrication laboratories (FabLabs) around the world, the use of digital fabrication tools for prototyping in educational institutes is becoming increasingly common. Studies on the social, environmental, and economic sustainability of digital fabrication have been carried out. However, none of them focus on sustainability and prototyping-based digital fabrication tools or design education. To bridge this research gap, a conceptual framework for sustainable prototyping based on a five-stage design thinking model is proposed. The framework, which is based on a comprehensive literature review of social, economic, and environmental sustainability factors of digital fabrication, is applied to evaluate a prototyping process that took place in a FabLab in an education context aimed at enhancing sustainability. Three case studies are used to evaluate the proposed framework. Based on the findings, recommendations are presented for sustainable prototyping using digital fabrication tools.

This thesis explores the fundamentals of a new class of parallel mechanisms called parallel mechanisms with configurable platforms as well as the design and analysis of parallel robots that are based on those mechanisms. Pure parallel robots are formed by two rigid links, the base and the end-effector, connected in parallel by independent serial chains, called legs. The novel concept behind parallel robots with configurable platforms is that the rigid end-effector is replaced by a closed-loop chain, the configurable platform. Some of the links of this closed-loop chain are attached to the legs so its configuration can be fully controlled from the actuators located on the base. The use of a closed-loop chain instead of a rigid end-effector allows the robot to interact with the environment using multiple contact points on the platform. This results in a robot that can combine motion and grasping capabilities into a structure that provides an inherent high structural stiffness. All the actuators are grounded on the base requiring no additional motor at the end-effector location to provide the grasping. High-speed pick-and-place robots and haptic interfaces are examples of devices that can benefit from this new type of architecture.

This chapter presents an introduction to digital fabrication and the exciting opportunities it offers in the accessibility and assistive technology domain. Digital fabrication tools are more efficient and accessible than manual fabrication tools, allowing for efficient and affordable creation or modification of existing assistive technologies, or novel solutions. This chapter provides an overview of relevant digital fabrication tools (with an emphasis on 3D printing technology) and current online communities to share ideas and designs, and discusses exciting research and practitioner contributions that leverage 3D printing. The chapter concludes with the author’s recommendations for how to successfully apply this technology in accessibility projects and areas for future inquiry.

Concrete is the most used human-made material in the world, and it is responsible for around 8% of the total greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Hence, efficient concrete construction methods are one of the main foci of research in architecture, civil engineering, and material science. One recent development that promises to achieve this goal is the use of digital fabrication for building components. Most investigations focus on direct extrusion 3D printing with concrete, which has already been covered in several review articles. Conversely, this article reviews a different approach, which focuses on the indirect digital fabrication of concrete through 3D printed formworks. This approach is under investigation for structural and nonstructural, as well as for on- and off-site applications, with a number of projects having already been built, but a comprehensive review of 3D printed formworks has not yet been compiled to synthesize the findings. This article provides a comprehensive map of the state-of-the-art of five different 3D printing technologies used for the fabrication of formworks so far. The aim is to serve as a fundamental reference for future research, provide a basis for consistent language in this field, and support the development of construction standards. The article further discusses the new geometric possibilities with 3D printed formworks and their potential for making concrete construction more sustainable. In addition, the opportunities and challenges of 3D printed formworks are evaluated in the context of other traditional and digital fabrication tools. A synthetic classification in five functional typologies is proposed and illustrated with 30 representative case studies. Finally, the article concludes with a brief reflection on the role of 3D printing in the broader context of formwork innovation and a possible outlook for this technology.

The restoration of ancient machinery involves a number of aspects, including manufacturing procedure, materials, and scales. Portions that cannot be confirmed should be regarded as variable parameters of the reconstructed design, and therefore, there is no single result. The goal of reconstruction is to establish a prototype of ancient machinery with its mechanical engineering techniques and crafts. The problem of this study is how digital fabrication tools used in architectural design can be applied to the reconstruction of ancient machinery with the water-powered armillary and celestial tower as an example. The objective was to synthesize results that comply with historical records in a systematic, modularized, and parameterized manner and consider the feasibility of using modern digital fabrication and materials. With the procedure, we can reduce the difficulty of ancient machinery reconstruction and provide a reference for the reconstruction designs of ancient mechanical technology and crafts, and mass production made of different materials and scales in the future.

<p>In a climate where standard methods of construction are being challenged, developments in engineered timbers are allowing mass timber construction to be explored as a sustainable alternative to traditional building methods. Cross- laminated timber (CLT) is at the forefront of this evolution and, with the advancement in computational design and digital fabrication tools, there lies an opportunity to redefine standard construction. This project explores how digital modelling and advance digital fabrication can be combined to generate a connection system for CLT panels. The advantages of CLT and mass timber construction are numerous and range from environmental and aesthetic benefits to site safety and cost reduction benefits. There are, however, issues that remain surrounding the connections between CLT panels. Steurer (2006, p.136) stated that, “Progress in engineered timber construction is directly related to developments in connector technology.” This thesis creates connections inspired by traditional Japanese joinery that have been adapted to be used for the panel construction of CLT structures. Using CLT offcuts as a primary connection material, the system not only reduces waste but also mitigates thermal bridging and lowers the number of connection points whilst increasing the ease of building and fabrication. The connections are first considered at a detail scale. They use the literature review and case studies as a base for design before being tested using digitally fabricated prototypes. These prototypes are evaluated against a framework created in line with the aforementioned criteria. Within this framework, the connections are analysed against existing connection systems as well as previous designs to establish a successful system. The connections are then evaluated within the context of a building scale and considers large-scale fabrication and on- site assembly whilst continuing to focus on the reduction of waste. This research found that the simplicity of the connections is key to a successful system as this allows for faster and cheaper fabrication and installation. However, there is still further research needed surrounding large-scale fabrication and the structural capacity of timber connection systems.</p>

The development of sheltering to people with emergency needs, and the design of a small pavilion to support a Municipal running cycled path system in an academic context are showed in this paper. To this propose it was developed 3D models using visual programming and different techniques of digital fabrication. The natural scale prototypes (1:1 scale) built demonstrates the collaborative fabrication effort of different team members (students of architecture), the public administration and an industry partner. Different systems of communication and digital fabrication tools were implemented proving an efficient way of design and assembling the artifacts. As final result different prototypes were built simulating a real building experience.

Basic needs of food, shelter and employment are currently not being provided by a robust economy that far too often bypasses those most in need. Center City Philadelphia is both vibrant and bleak, and like most cities it is constantly vacillating between progress and regression. Pangburn's Philadelphia Farmhouse is designed for immigrant, migrant and transitory residents, giving them the opportunity to live in a supportive communal environment that grows and harvests crops from the vertical fields within a new city infrastructure. Pangburn's Philadelphia Farmhouse presents a holistic approach to housing that incorporates living and growing into a single structure. It incorporates traditional greenhouse growing techniques as well as Controlled Environment Agriculture. Designed to address homelessness and food insecurity, the Philadelphia Farmhouse reveals a new city infrastructure. The Philadelphia Farmhouse creates a new type of architecture that addresses some of a greatest problems-lack of affordable housing, food insecurity and the underlying unstable employment economy.

This research proposes that mass timber panels can not only enable a new type of architecture that is sustainable, but that also sounds better. As mass timber construction often exposes the wood structure, and these panels are carefully constructed in factory settings, these panels have the potential to be built so that the acoustically absorptive, reflective, or sound scattering acoustic properties of surfaces can be integrated into the constructive logic and architectural aesthetic of the building. This paper specifically investigates the potentials of the sound scattering performance of cross laminated timber (CLT) panels. Through design, simulation, and prototyping various surface designs are investigated.

espanolTrabajos de prospeccion arqueologica realizados en la parte alta de los valles de Palpa, en la vertiente occidental de los Andes, nos han permitido identificar y registrar un importante numero de asentamientos pertenecientes a la culturaParacas, de manera especial, aquellos pertenecientes a las epocas Paracas Medio (550 a 350 a.C.) y Paracas Tardio (350 a 200 a.C.), entre los que destacan varios sitios bastante grandes que presentan construcciones de piedra que conforman estructuras arquitectonicas en forma de flor. Se trata de construcciones en donde se pueden distinguir patios hundidos de forma de media luna o de forma circular, alrededor de los cuales se disponen recintos en forma de «D» que presentan pequenas terrazas delante del muro recto.Recientes excavaciones en area realizadas en Cutamalla, uno de los asentamientos mas grandes y mejor conservados de la zona, nos han permitido documentar con detalle este tipo de estructuras arquitectonicas, y conocer sus rasgos formales y constructivos, su filiacion cultural, asi como las actividades que se realizaban en ellas.Todos los datos indican que las estructuras arquitectonicas en forma de flor constituyen un nuevo patron arquitectonico Paracas Tardio, cuya distribucion se limita a una parte de la sierra de Lucanas, Ayacucho, y que, hasta el momento, viene a ser unico en toda la sierra sur del Peru. EnglishDuring our archaeological surveys in the upper reaches of the Palpa valleys, at the western slope of the Andes, we identified and registered a large number of settlements of the Paracas culture, most of them dating to the Middle Paracas(550-350 BC) and Late Paracas (350-200 BC) period. Of special interest are several large sites with stone buildings with circular ground plans, similar to the shape of a flower. The center of these architectural complexes consists of acircular or crescent shaped sunken patio, around which are arranged D-shaped enclosures with small terraces in front of the straight wall.Through our large scale excavations in Cutamalla, one of the largest and best preserved settlements in the area, we were able to document in detail this new type of architecture and to define its formal and constructive features, as well as its cultural affiliation and the activities carried out within the structures.All the data recovered so far indicate that these circular structures have to be considered as a new architectural type of the Late Paracas period. The distribution of this new architectural pattern is limited to a part of the highlands of Lucanas, Ayacucho, and, as far as we know, seems to be unique in the southern highlands of Peru.

The antiferroelectric phase is observed on compounds with a new type of architecture: Chiral non-symmetric dimesogens. In this paper, we briefly report their synthesis. Then, we present a detailed analysis of the mesomorphic behaviour, involving many ways of investigations: DSC measurements and optical microscopy, electrooptic properties, pitch measurements and X-Ray scattering. We show that these compounds display a very rich polymorphism, including SA, SC*α, SC*, SC*FI and SC*A phases.

In recent years Pd(II) and Pt(II) cases have been reported wherein metals in square planar complexes were used as nucleophilic partners to construct supramolecular assemblies with electrophilic molecules like σ-hole and π-hole donors. The formation of such assemblies is based on the nucleophilicity and accessibility of the dz2 orbital (in group-10 elements) in the square-planar complexes. This opens new avenues in inorganic chemistry and crystal engineering as it enriches the current toolbox of noncovalent interactions and supramolecular synthons thus allowing the design of new types of architectures in the solid state. This manuscript reports a comprehensive theoretical study characterizing π-hole⋯dz2[MII] (M = group 10 element) interactions from an energetic point of view. Several computational tools based on the topology of the electron density are used. Examined systems had been identified by considering structures in the Cambridge Structural Database where this interaction was used to construct supramolecular assemblies. Several aromatic rings have been used, varying from π-basic to π-acid rings by adjusting the number of fluorine substituents. Moreover, the influence of metal⋯metal interactions on the nucleophilicity of the dz2 orbital has been studied using MEP surface analysis. The π-hole energies are moderately strong (from -5 to -10 kcal mol-1) and the crucial role of dispersion forces is revealed.

In embedded systems a processor core must be designed with low power consumption, low cost and small silicon area in mind since program code often resides in on-chip ROM. To obtain small code size, not only the amount of instruction-level parallelism can be restricted by instruction sets, but also the encoding cost can be reduced by restricting the access to register files. However, communication among register files has to be supported by hardware, e.g. buses and wires, and compilers. In this paper, we propose a new type of architecture by limiting the encoding range to a subset of registers in a register file on the one hand, and keeping the overlap among different ranges on the other hand in order to support communication between all the functional units. We also propose the annotated conflict graph approach for modeling the range constraints in this architecture, which can be applied in combination with any scheduler. However, to overcome the phase coupling between address range assignment and scheduling in code generation, in this paper the address range constraints are transformed and integrated with the existing timing, resource and register file constraints. Constraint analysis techniques [9] are adapted to prune the search spaces based on those constraints. Results show that we can reduce code size up to 24.58% by applying our technique.

Put me on the map, give my industrial city a second chance, make me the centrefold of the Sunday supplements, the cover of in-flight magazines, the backdrop for fashion shoots, give me an iconic landmark, give me – architectural – shock and awe. Charles Jencks, Iconic Buildings: The Power of Enigma (2004), 18. Introduction Political agencies' recent embrace of what has come to be known as ‘iconic’ architecture can be understood as a continuation of longstanding attempts to mobilize major building projects, first, to materialize wider discourses of major social change, and second, to generate surplus value from urban space. The desire to commission sufficiently persuasive and socially resonant architectural forms with which to attract various forms of mobile capital – especially from the private sector and tourism – while at the same time symbolizing an upward trajectory for a place, has seen iconic architecture incorporated enthusiastically into UK cultural policy strategies. The ‘visually consumable’ (Urry 2002) nature of such attention- grabbing buildings, allied to a hope that iconic forms will help create instantly recognizable ‘brand images’ for places, has led Charles Jencks to claim a renewed function for statement architecture. He has observed that in ‘the last ten years a new type of architecture has emerged. Driven by social forces, the demand for instant fame and economic growth, the expressive landmark has challenged the previous tradition of the architectural monument’ (2004: 7).

This paper mainly presents a novel compliant universal joint with linear stiffness (CUJ-LS). This new type of architecture can maintain the linear stiffness while realizing two rotational DOFs. And the planar topology ensures that the rotation axis remains through the center of the moving platform, thus deducing the moment of inertia. According to the Freedom and Constrain Topology (FACT) theory, this paper firstly proposes a topological structure of the compliant universal joint. Then the stiffness model is established by the Beam Constraint Model (BCM) and the condition of achieving linear stiffness is derived: λ = 0.1273/0.8727. By introducing the intermediate platforms, the linear stiffness in two directions of rotation is realized. Finally, FEA method is implemented to verify and analyze the rotation performances of this compliant universal joint. Verified characteristics provide conditions for the applications of compliant universal joint in laser communication, antenna pointing, infrared tracking and aiming, laser processing, precision measurement and other fields which require high-speed, high-acceleration and high precision characteristics.