Co-Design of Collective Robotic Construction Systems in Architecture

Collective robotic construction (CRC) is a newly defined field that addresses questions of the application of multiple robot systems (MRS) in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry. In comparison to existing practices in construction automation, which often deploy individual static industrial machines to assemble pre-planned building elements, CRC systems generally involve the development of custom machines that can fit within a suitcase, are mobile within their construction environments and can collaborate to assemble architectural structures that emerge during their assembly. This new field introduces a series of research questions, specifically related to the transformation of current practices and methods in the fields of AEC, as CRC systems have the potential to disrupt the entire life cycle of a building, from design to disassembly.

Although research in the field of CRC is currently expanding, it tends to be highly discipline-specific. This often results in the development of either generalized methods that overlook major constraints from other disciplines or highly customized approaches, which are applicable only to the specific CRC system under consideration. As a result, fundamental research questions regarding system integration for real architectural assembly and the overall co-design of the CRC system remain unanswered. Therefore, the major objective of this doctoral research is to illustrate how co-design, an approach to design that engages relevant disciplines in concurrent and feedback-driven development, is facilitated by integrative computational design. This approach can effectively address the four key themes of CRC - construction materials, robotic systems, assembly algorithms, and architectural design - resulting in the development of architecturally relevant CRC systems. This is achieved through the presentation of a novel CRC system that utilizes timber, a building material found in the AEC industry.

In the co-design process, this dissertation places particular emphasis on architectural design, as a primary theme that is often overlooked in research on CRC. It is explained that the comprehension, development, and analysis of methods for architectural design in CRC are important measures for realizing the full potential of such a novel approach to construction automation. Various approaches to architectural design are conceptually defined and formalized using the presented CRC system in order to demonstrate the range of approaches that can be taken in CRC.

As such, this dissertation contributes to shaping a construction paradigm where real architectural structures can be robotically assembled using teams of small, mobile machines.

The publication is open-access and can be downloaded free of charge from the University's publication server: https://doi.org/10.18419/opus-17406

Scientific Development

Samuel Leder

Supervisor and first examiner

Prof. Achim Menges, Institute for Computational Design and Construction (ICD), University of Stuttgart

Second examiner

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Marc Toussaint, Learning & Intelligent Systems Lab, TU Berlin

German Research Foundation (DFG), EXC 2120 IntCDC

BBSR Zukunft Bau