BIM-integrated Computational Design and Robotic Fabrication in Construction

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The construction industry today has yet to fully benefit from digital technology, while a shortage of skilled workers is beginning to impact the realization capacity of the AEC in industrialized countries. Higher productivity, better sustainability, and the ability to attract the younger generation of workers and professionals, requires that the industry adopt manufacturing methods like offsite and digital fabrication. According to a 2019 publication, however, there is relatively little construction-based research in Canada dealing with automation and robotics. The proposed research program aims to fulfill part of these gaps using an interdisciplinary approach. Digital (computational) design enables performance-driven and material-informed form-finding methods of design but can be efficiently brought to reality only through model-driven digital (robotic) fabrication (Rfab). As design and fabrication are interdependent in this context, this proposal uses the term `Computational Design and Robotic Fabrication' (CDRfab) to name the entire integrated process. The overall purpose of this program is to contribute to the body of knowledge and the technical advancement of CDRfab of high performance, integrated multi-functional building elements, whose relevant data is part of a BIM-based Common Data Environment. It aims at solving some of the present limitations of digitally manufactured construction, through the integration of CDRfab data with BIM. In the short term (5 years), the general objective will be to create the theoretical and digital frameworks for the BIM-based CDRfab, and to validate them in controlled environment. It will encompass the following specific Short-Term Objectives (STO), among others: 1.Create a Framework for decision making about CDRfab in construction; 2.Identify building systems/elements that could most benefit from CDRfab in a Canadian context; 3.Define robotic fabrication methods and design requirements for the above-identified elements; 4.Integrate Rfab-centred data into BIM and into a Common Data Environment (CDE); 5.Validate the CDE through CDRfab activities in the context of an interdisciplinary studio on the design and prototyping of integrated multifunctional building elements (i.g. a building enclosure with optimized structural, acoustic and bioclimatic functions, etc.)  In parallel, and with the long-term objective in mind, we will begin research on fabrication methodologies and materiality from a sustainability point of view, as well as on the logistics, contractual and management aspects of CDRfab, as they also will potentially be transformed. This research program not only aims to prepare the Canadian AEC industry for the transition towards robotic use in construction, but to position it as a driving force in it.