Waste-Free Robotic Construction of Spatial Discrete Element Structures

建筑业是资源最密集的行业之一，但民用基础设施的建设仍然采用传统的废物密集型方法。机器人制造预计将在未来几十年颠覆建筑业。它的优点包括提高生产率，降低劳动力成本，更安全的工作环境和一次性的设计，复杂的建筑，不技术和经济上可行的传统施工方法。目前的建筑形式深深植根于前机器人建造的基本原理，因此现有建筑形式的机器人建造仍然具有重大的经济和环境成本。这样的建筑将需要模板和岸上工作，一旦整个结构完成，这些工作就会被浪费掉。本研究将开发计算和物理方法，用于大跨度离散结构的分析、以施工为重点的设计和机器人组装，以避免任何形式或岸上工作浪费。此外，该项目将提高高中，本科生和研究生以及博士后研究员的研究经验，并将通过年度会议和机构夏季材料研究学院向K-12少数民族社区提供外展服务。这项研究的目标是产生一种新的理解，即如何在不需要任何脚手架或模板的情况下，为空间离散元素系统的机器人装配量身定制寻形和元素布局方法，以及机器人相位和路径规划算法。因此，具体目标是：(i)开发一个计算框架，用于生成在内部膜或轴向作用下加载的离散单元几何形状，以及基于拓扑优化和测地线方法的有效单元布局的细分；（ii）将波纹或板带施工策略集成到计算框架中，以确保在没有外部支撑的情况下整个施工过程中的稳定性。（iii）为多个协作静态或移动机器人开发并纳入基于临时支持相位和路径规划算法的机器人协作装配方法，并通过构建离散结构原型对其进行物理验证。该项目的主要动机是证明空间结构的形状和元素布局和顺序可以定制，以省略机器人施工过程中的所有支撑材料。如果这个前提得到验证，它将为机器人建筑建立一个新的范例，并促进机器人制造成为可持续和具有成本效益的民用基础设施的驱动力。这项研究将推进结构力学与设计、建筑工程和增材机器人制造方面的知识基础。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The construction industry is one of most resource‐intensive sectors and yet civil infrastructure continues to be constructed with traditional waste-intensive approaches. Robotic manufacturing is projected to disrupt the construction industry in the next decades. Its advantages include increased productivity, reduced labor costs, safer working environments and design of one-off, complex buildings that are not technically and economically feasible with traditional construction methods. Current building forms are deeply rooted in a pre-robotic construction rationale, therefore robotic construction of existing building forms still have significant economic and environmental costs. Such construction would need form and shore work, which goes to waste once the entire structure is completed. This research will develop computational and physical approaches for the analysis, construction-focused design, and robotic assembly of long span discrete structures to build without any form or shore work waste. Additionally, this project will enhance research experiences for high school, undergraduate and graduate students as well as a postdoctoral researcher, and will provide outreach to the K-12 minority community through an annual conference and an institutional summer materials research academy.The goal of this research is to generate a new understanding of how form finding, and element layout approaches coupled with robotic phasing and path-planning algorithms can be tailored for robotic assembly of spatial discrete element systems without requiring any scaffolding or formwork. Thus, the specific objectives are to (i) to develop a computational framework for the generation of discrete element geometries loaded under internal membrane or axial action, and for the tessellation of efficient element layouts based on topology optimization and geodesic net approaches, (ii) to integrate corrugation or plate-bande construction strategies into the computational framework to ensure stability throughout construction in the absence of external support, and (iii) to develop and incorporate robotic collaborative assembly methods based on temporary support phasing and path-planning algorithms for multiple collaborative static or mobile robots, into the framework, and physically validate them through the construction of discrete structure prototypes. The key motivation of this project is to prove that the shape and the element layout and sequencing of spatial structures can be tailored to omit all support material during robotic construction. If this premise is validated, it establishes a novel paradigm for robotic construction and promotes robotic manufacturing as a driver for sustainable and cost-effective civil infrastructure. This research will advance the knowledge base in structural mechanics and design, construction engineering and additive robotic manufacturing.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.