Assignment 7 Completed

Assignment 7.2 Jenga Wall

addition of script (1): adding "A+B" to move the location of all the points to the desired location on the table top.

addition of script (2): finding centroid of the top surface of the jenga block as the point to be picked up from the table top.

Addition of script (3): bypassing the script for generating the block. extract the points and resequence them to feed to the Gripper script.

The simulation of the Mitey.

We failed to finish the stacking since we ran out of robot time. Other issues was failing to assign the Tool so we decided to use the Pinhead tool instead (by copying all our codes except the tool into Pinhead's grasshopper file). Everything went quite smooth after that but since the tool is a little bit different we were spending most of the time calibrating it so we can use our jenga block script with the pinhead gripper tool. 

Our blocks

 Our work surface. This was so the pieces would lay flat on the slightly uneven table.

 Placing a block. We had trouble changing the vertical height to account for the work surface.

Reading 006: Changing Building Sites - Hillary Davlin's Response

“Changing Building Sites”, written by Thomas Bock and Silke Langenberg, explores the long history and potential of robotic automation on the building site. Beginning n the 19^th century, specific machines have been necessary in aiding construction processes for new materials (concrete, steel etc.) in the industrial revolution. For example, one of the biggest architectural feats of the century, the Crystal Palace (built in 1851), required new steam powered machines that could hold the large cast iron beams, thus changing the physical building site. Progressing into the 20^th century, the destruction from WWI and WWII pushed the need for new construction machinery as housing shortage reached an all-time high.  Massed produced, prefabricated components become the main mode of construction, changing machinery and building site even further. 

            Prefabrication in buildings and building systems advanced even greater during the 60s and 70s. Standardized systems and mass production enabled time and cost savings, yet again shifting the paradigm of building elements and site. During the 70s, Japan hit a population and housing boom. Using similar mass production of building systems, Japan adopted an automation system that replicated more of an assembly line than actual automation. Robots slowly became introduced not only into system production, but also into construction firms for the purposes of demolition, surveying, excavation, paving, tunneling, welding, etc. on site. As robots have transitioned from the factory to the construction site, it has been argued that building sites are more successful if they are designed similar to factories, where robots are fully integrated into the future production of a home.

Assignment 7 - Jenga

 grasshopper script 1 for the wall

 We tried to isolate the grasshopper script that contains the gripper control from the last assignment. But then we failed to figure out the script for the sequence of picking up the bricks from bottom layer to top layer.

Brick Wall from different views

Gripper Tool

Monica Reading Response 006: Changing Building Sites

                Bock and Langenberg’s article describes the history of industrialization in the building process in order to anticipate the use of robots in future construction. The authors begin by stating that the use of new technologies in construction has always been at least a generation behind other areas of industry. Prefabricated elements such as standardized beams, columns, and glass panes became more common in the 20s and 30s. However, only a few buildings sites such as Ernst Neufert’s Hausbaumachine tried to respond to this new construction technique through their design. It was not until the 60s and 70s that the emphasis turned to the construction process of prefabricated buildings, rather than the design.

                By the mid-1970s, single-task construction robots were introduced onto sites as an alternative to pre-fab elements. However, these robots were manually operated and required stringent safety standards, and they did not improve the overall efficiency of construction. Integrated Automated Construction Sites were another technique of using machines on site. This method can be likened to a vertical moving factory, and has also been used successfully for demolition in Asia. However, it is still difficult to use these methods in order to save significant money, since each building site requires different considerations and it can be hard to standardize.

                The authors once again point out that most changes to the construction process take a generation or so after the technology is invented to really be put in place. They believe that robots will become increasingly important to the construction process in the future. However, just as industrialization totally changed the building process instead of just reinventing the old, the use of robots in architecture requires the same. Robots will only be used successfully on building sites once design, engineering, and management take robots into account from the outset.

Reading 007 Lena Pfeiffer

Reading 007 Lena Pfeiffer

This weeks reading Retooling for Mass Markets by Tom Verebes discusses the role of robotics is mass housing production.  The population growth on the planet has caused for necessary focus on creating living spaces for millions of people every year.  One issue this article discusses is the standardization of these housing projects and the lack of design diversity.  The standardized method that has grown out of the Industrial Revolution does not allow for a city to form a unique model for itself.  The question now is how can robots help us create a simplified way for design to become diverse again? How can the technology of these machines make it easier for these large housing projects to be built in an affordable and efficient manner, without taking away from the unique designs and character of the building?  

Through fabrication, manufacturing, construction, assembly and management, robotics has become a tool for the problem of the housing demand.  Both independent robotic design teams, and university-funded programs have been working to find the answers to methods of combining robotics and construction.  The next step is taking the fabrication out of the laboratories and into the field of the construction site.  

While standardization is "both the problem and the solution", the robot is a tool that can be an even better resolution to the issue of under-produced, under-designed, over standardized housing.

Jeffrey's Response to Authoring Robotic Processes

This reading further explains the reading from last week, integrating robotic fabrication in the design process. It introduces the new phenomenon, "digital materiality", that bridges digital design and realization. While robotics were less common in architecture, this reading explains how robotics is now giving a new aesthetic and potentials that changes the architecture design and building culture.

While some argue digital technologies as a generator of complex geometries and renderings, this reading suggest that the real question should focus how digital technologies changes architectural material practice. The authors were not interested in the technological advances, instead they focuses on how it can expand the scope of architectural design and production.

One of the examples is that it can do non-standardized assembly which would be close to be impossible to be built like The Gatenbein Vineyard Facade. Also because architecture is in fact pure physical substance, robots helps enabling realization of these creative projects.

The authors also mentioned the new emphasis of this digital age that we must look into both practical and theoretical perspectives in order to make robot not just a medium of production, but also developing new approaches to design.

It is also true that because it has become more and more available to the public that anyone can be an expert in digital fabrication now. Because of robot, we can now develop new ways of thinking about architecture as well as materializing it.