Robotics

Robotic Fabrication and Circular Tectonics

Producing interlocking timber joint details with 6-axis robotic arms, and demountable building systems with a zero-carbon footprint.

The construction sector is responsible for roughly 40% of global carbon emissions. A large share of this figure stems from composite materials and chemical connection elements that become waste at the end of a structure's life. Circular architecture offers a solution to this problem by designing the structure to be demountable and reusable from the very outset.

The robotic fabrication research we conduct within REACTO R-Lab focuses on reinterpreting the traditional Japanese timber-joinery technique Sashimono with 6-axis robotic arms. The KUKA KR120 robotic arm scans the natural grain texture of the timber with optical sensors and mills with millimetric precision. The resulting joint details require no chemical adhesives or metal fasteners.

The algorithms used on our robotic production line automatically compute the highest-strength joint geometries by optimizing for the knots, cracks, and fiber orientations within the timber block. Finite element analyses performed with Karamba3D show that these joints possess 20% higher moment capacity than conventional steel-plated connections.