3D Printing and Swarm Robotics Merge in Neri Oxman's Fiberbots

[Disir]

Mix the waste-free efficiency of additive manufacturing with the automated teamwork of swarm robotics, and you get a sense of what Fiberbots is trying to accomplish in the building industry. The latest project released from MIT’s Mediated Matter Group, founded and directed by designer Neri Oxman, aggregates 16 architectural-scale, freestanding, fiber-reinforced composite (FRC) tubes built in tandem by an army of autonomous robots.

The resulting 4.5-meter-tall (15-foot-tall) installation calls to mind other human-scale additive manufacturing efforts—such as NASA’s 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge and myriad 3D printed houses—and swarm robotics that are tackling construction efforts such as bricklaying.

The Mediated Matter Group itself is no stranger to the use of robotics. In 2013, the panelized armature of its landmark Silk Pavilion was deftly woven by a robotic arm. That frame became the structure for the webs of thread that was output by 6,500 silkworms, which, along with termites, were Mother Nature–supplied inspirations for the “robotic chimeric silkmite” the group seeks in Fiberbots.
https://www.architectmagazine.com/t...arm-robotics-merge-in-neri-oxmans-fiberbots_o

Still have a ways to go.

 

[Correll]

Mix the waste-free efficiency of additive manufacturing with the automated teamwork of swarm robotics, and you get a sense of what Fiberbots is trying to accomplish in the building industry. The latest project released from MIT’s Mediated Matter Group, founded and directed by designer Neri Oxman, aggregates 16 architectural-scale, freestanding, fiber-reinforced composite (FRC) tubes built in tandem by an army of autonomous robots.

The resulting 4.5-meter-tall (15-foot-tall) installation calls to mind other human-scale additive manufacturing efforts—such as NASA’s 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge and myriad 3D printed houses—and swarm robotics that are tackling construction efforts such as bricklaying.

The Mediated Matter Group itself is no stranger to the use of robotics. In 2013, the panelized armature of its landmark Silk Pavilion was deftly woven by a robotic arm. That frame became the structure for the webs of thread that was output by 6,500 silkworms, which, along with termites, were Mother Nature–supplied inspirations for the “robotic chimeric silkmite” the group seeks in Fiberbots.
https://www.architectmagazine.com/t...arm-robotics-merge-in-neri-oxmans-fiberbots_o

Still have a ways to go.

Intriguing.