Skeletal composites: robotic fabrication processes for lightweight multi-nodal structural components
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Skeletal composites: robotic fabrication processes for lightweight multi‑nodal structural components Marshall Prado1 Received: 12 June 2020 / Accepted: 29 October 2020 / Published online: 24 November 2020 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract The research presented in this chapter describes the novel robotic fabrication strategies for multi-nodal structural components made from lightweight fiber composite materials. The paper contextualizes the research within a larger area of composite manufacturing in architecture and focuses on the developed methodologies for adaptive, material-efficient production. This research builds on coreless filament winding processes that eliminate the need for large surface molds and wasted materials for composite production. This process allows for large geometrically differentiated structural building components to be easily produced adaptively for architectural applications. The research tests the production of complex components for a vertical lattice structural system. The multi-nodal structural components enable continuous material and fiber orientations across the intersections of the lattice while simplifying connections. Key improvements presented in this paper included the robotic assembly process for the reconfigurable winding frames that reduce assembly times and increase accuracy, computational techniques for developing winding syntax, and physical simulation of material orientations for robotic path planning. This is followed by a conclusion and outlook to discuss the tested results on a full-scale demonstrator and the future design potentials. Keywords Robotic fabrication · Lightweight · Fiber composites · Coreless filament winding
1 Introduction Fiber composite materials have many advantages for architectural production. Composites are commonly used in many large-scale manufacturing industries such as automotive, aerospace, and marine (Barynin et al. 1999; Adam 1997; Davies and Chauchot 1999). These lightweight, high-performance materials are easily formable and can provide a variety of material behaviors through control of fiber arrangements and orientations. They enable a higher degree of material efficiency, weight reduction, corrosion resistance, and structural capacity than standard building materials. This makes them an important material solution for many performancebased architectural applications (Kreysler 2017). Despite the technological advancements that have been made in composite manufacturing, including many robotic fabrication strategies, most of these processes still rely on costly formwork, surface molds, or winding mandrels to shape or
* Marshall Prado [email protected] 1
University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA
form the material. This effectively streamlines composite fabrication for serialized production of identical parts while problematizing its use in architectural applications. Serialized or mass-produced architecture has repeatedly failed to become a major mode of building design and construction without s
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