Automation of Whole House Construction Using Contour Crafting

传统的制造自动化方法不适合建造具有内部特征的大型结构。这就解释了建筑自动化发展缓慢的原因。一种很有前途的新自动化方法是分层制造，通常被称为固体自由形式制造或快速原型制造，它使用添加方法，能够创建复杂的内部特征。然而，目前的大多数分层制造方法都受到它们提供适用于建筑的各种材料的能力的限制。此外，它们还受到材料沉积率低的严重制约，这使得它们仅对制造小型工业部件具有吸引力。该项目介绍了一种新的建筑自动化方法，该方法使用了南加州大学开发的一种称为轮廓工艺(CC)的分层制造工艺。这一过程旨在自动化建造整个房屋和子组件。使用这一过程，可以在一次运行中自动建造一座或一群房子，每座房子可能有不同的设计。私人投资者研究计划的具体重点是扩大他们目前的研究活动，目前的研究活动主要集中在小规模部分，使用适当的建筑材料建造和测试房屋的完整部分，并调查其他相关的可伸缩性问题。为实现这些目标，私人投资促进机构致力于开展与以下方面有关的活动：(A)开发建造标准房屋的关键机械部件；(B)软件和控制问题；(C)已建造结构的试验、测试和分析。预计研究成果也将推广到其他星球的建设，以及陶瓷艺术领域。

Conventional methods of manufacturing automation do not lend themselves to construction of large structures with internal features. This explains why the evolution of construction automation has been slow. A promising new automation approach is layered fabrication, generally known as solid free form fabrication or rapid prototyping, which uses an additive method and is capable of creating complex internal features. However, most of the current layered fabrication methods are limited by their ability to deliver a wide variety of materials applicable to construction. Additionally, they are severely constrained by the low rates of material deposition which makes them attractive only for the fabrication of small industrial parts. This project addresses a novel construction automation approach using a layered fabrication process called Contour Crafting (CC) which has been developed at the University of Southern California. The process aims at automated construction of whole houses as well as sub-components. Using this process, a single house or a colony of houses, each with possibly a different design, may be automatically constructed in a single run. The specific focus of the PIs' research plan is to extend their current research activities, which have so far concentrated on small scale parts, to build and test full-scale sections of houses using proper construction materials, and to investigate other pertinent scalability issues. Towards realizing these objectives, the PIs aim at conducting activities pertaining to: (a) development of crucial machine elements for construction of segments of full-scale houses, (b) software and control issues, and (c) experimentation, testing and analysis of constructed structures. It is anticipated that the research results will be also extendable to construction on other planets, and to the field of ceramic arts.