The aim is to give an introduction to robotic fabrication, focusing on setting up processes and tools to be used with the robot. The students are learning and practicing how to teach and offline program the robot’s movements and tool-paths. In fact the first couple of days of the workshop have been dedicated to the student’s understanding and manipulation (manually moving the robot) of the Kuka Robot.

The ambitious objective of the Seminar is to mass-produce wooden chairs, where the robot will handle all steps, from shaping the elements to applying the connections, with the aim of integrating digital planing and production into traditional craft.

SEMINAR BRIEF:

Each day, the average computing power of any given device increases. Technologies that were visionary and innovative in the

past, might not have been birthed at the correct time in order to take full advantage of their potential. For example, Virtual Reality in the late 80’s or 90’s was little more than a gimmick as the real time rendering capabilities of computers was not up to par with the vision for the technology. Last month, Facebook purchased a startup company that makes the Occulus Rift Virtual Reality Headset for 2 Billion USD. The technology is the same, but the computing power is different.

Unity is a Game Editor, allowing artists and designers to have one common platform for the development of 2D or 3D games that are deployable across many platforms including Windows, MacOSX, Android, iOS, XBox, etc. This means we can create immersive environments with realistic shadowing, information overlay, animation, and much more and be able to run them on the phones most of us have in our pockets. The implications for how we present our projects are broad.

Objective:

Over the course of this module, we will learn the Unity interface, how to model for a game environment, how to create navigation systems, cameras, and gui elements. In the end of the module, each individual will have a game engine platform to use for the presentation of their studio project.

Tools:

- Unity 4.3.4 or latest version

- Rhinoceros 5.0 or any 3D CAD for modelling (Rhino will be used in any tutorials dealing with modelling for games)

- Grasshopper 0.9.0072 + Plugins

The aim of the Seminar is to realize lightweight spatial installations (embedding textile materials) that are demountable, digitally fabricated, and eventually performative.

The students have formed 4 different groups, each one working on a different structural prototype implementation. In these first 3 days of the seminar each group worked their concept design, testing the structural capacities through the production of small scale prototypes.

The course counts on the collaboration of the company SERGE FERRARI, an international producer of flexible composite materials and membranes of high performances for architecture, who will provide the material for the construction.

Nowadays the physical computation, the electronics and the new technologies every time have more presence in the architecture. Some items, like the systems of optimization of energy, the light installations that increase architectural elements with the use extended of the LED, or devices that extract information of the environment and apply it in a creative form to the buildings, and sensitive spaces that react to the persons, they are some examples of applications of the technology in this field.

Open source electronics such as Arduino and online communities have helped in the generalization and democratization of knowledge in the last decade. This technology has endowed architects, designers and artists with cheap, powerful tools, as well as being incredibly easy use towards the development of ideas in a rapid and efficient form without the need of contract the services to external companies or investing big quantities of money in environments of development that are expensive and inflexible.

Using these techniques the students presented their projects consisting in the design and development of a physical module with common elements creating an interactive application together, as well as a modular and scalable system.

The workshop was centred around the development of a stair system, through both the creation of a physical model, as well as the generation of a virtual model using Karamba for virtual structural testing. Once generated the virtual model the students then re-elaborated the design of the stair thanks to the new data gained through the generative model with regards to the structural behaviour of the design.

During this 4 days workshop, students from the Fabrication Ecologies research line of the Master in Advanced Architecture 2013 were able to develop and test a new fabrication protocol deploying Hemp fibres by means of an industrial robot.
Through the production of a 1:1 scale prototype, the 4 teams explored the design opportunities arising from 2 different fabrication techniques developed within the Fabrication Ecologies Studio, focussed on the production of:
- an aggregate substratum via pick and place of fibrous component units.
- a non-woven fabric skin via robotic spraying of row hemp filaments.

The collaborative effort progressed in loops, with the work of one group informing the operations of the next. The feedback was mediated by a set of interfaces for real-time scanning (Kinect) and digital generative modelling (Grasshopper). The fabrication process than evolved into a conversation between designer, machine, material system, designer, prototype, machine, designer, and so on; each loop driven by a set of negotiations and specific design decisions.

Such fabrication protocol opens the possibility for a new form of participatory mass-customisation, ones that operates in real-time during and takes into account multiple factors such as design intentions, material behaviour, mechanical constraints and microclimatic conditions.

Machinic Conversations II on Vimeo.

Program Directors: Marco Poletto, Claudia Pasquero,

Workshop tutors: Andrea Bugli, Alexandre Dubor
Students: Jean Akanish, Drew Carson, Franciso Castillo, Marisa Charusilawong, Alexander Dolan, Kartik Gala, Sofokli Giannakopoulous, Gabriela Gonzalez, Vincent Huyghe, Yogesh Karekar, Stefanos Levidis, Iker Luna, Peter Malaga, Niccolo Marini, Priyanka Narula, Venkatakasi Raju, Aishwarya Sampath, Ahmed Selim, Jin Shihui, Georgios Soutos, Ali Yerdel

Our first experimental set up was the following:

-The robot was controlled by each student via Grasshopper, through the use of the KUKA | Krc plug-in (from association for robots in architecture) for Grasshopper and Rhino. Each group did draw a series of parametric lines that would become the tool paths for the robot.

-A video simulation with the virtual robot in Grasshopper was performed by each student to understand the behaviour of the machine along the path and amend eventual errors; the video  would allow also the testing of multiple path parameters and robot behavioural options.

-The tool mounted on the robot contained 1 fixed LED light and 2 or 4 blinking ones; the blinking was also controlled via Grasshopper and related to the robotic arm path.

-A camera was positioned in front of the robot and its exposure tuned to the particular lighting conditions and the length in time of the tool path. Such configuration allowed capturing the ephemeral lighting traces left by the robotic arm movements. The robotic behaviour is therefore translated into a 3D robotic light painting.

FABRICATION ECOLOGIES 2013
Research Line Directors: Claudia Pasquero and Marco Poletto [ecoLogicStudio]
Robotic Fabrication Assistant : Alexandre Dubor
Students : Venkatakasi Raju, Dolan Alexander, Ali Yerdel, Francisco Castillo, Drew Carson, Georgios Soutos, Niccolo Marini, Priyanka Narula, Gabriela Gonzalez, Jin Shihui, Nasr Chamma, Kartikashok Gala, Aishwarya Sampath, Giannakopoulous Sofoklis, Vincent Huyghe, Peter  Malaga, Ahmed Selim, Iker Luna, Yogesh Karekar, Jean Akanish, Charusilawong Marisa, Levidis Stefanos