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Integrative Computational Design and Construction for Architecture (T3.0)
Research
Associated Projects
AP 2 – Timber Construction 4.0

Timber Construction 4.0

Associated Project 2 (AP 2)

TIMBER CONSTRUCTION 4.0

Prefabrication is often associated with automation. Although timber construction has a comparatively high proportion of prefabrication in the construction industry, it is mainly the production of the individual parts that is computer controlled. This project aims to digitise further steps in prefabrication: from subtractive manufacturing of components to additive joining of prefabricated assemblies and quality assurance. Innovative automation and digitisation strategies and technologies from other industries can be further developed for the specific requirements of timber construction.

The aim of the research project is to transfer the potential of Industry 4.0 to robotic prefabrication in timber construction and to develop new production processes that will trigger a paradigm shift. By integrating computer-based design methods, static optimisation, digital manufacturing, robotic assembly and quality assurance, adaptive and material-efficient design systems will be developed. The focus will be on all aspects of cyber-physical production: subtractive manufacturing of individual parts, additive assembly of components into prefabricated assemblies through digital identification, handling, placement and joining of components, intelligent logistics, feedback and quality assurance. Therefore, the research project aims to integrate further essential aspects of Industry 4.0 and the associated digitalisation of production technology and logistics in order to demonstrate the full potential of the fourth industrial revolution for timber construction.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS

Prof. Achim Menges
Institute for Computational Design and Construction (ICD), University of Stuttgart
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jan Knippers
Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE), University of Stuttgart

RESEARCHERS

Simon Bechert (ITKE)
Hans Jakob Wagner (ICD)

FUNDING

Clusterinitiative Forst und Holz Baden-Württemberg, “Industrie 4.0 im Holzbau”, HIP_1064103

PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS

2020
1. Qi, Y., Zhong, R., Kaiser, B., Nguyen, L., Wagner, H. J., Verl, A., & Menges, A. (2020). Working with Uncertainties: An Adaptive Fabrication Workflow for Bamboo Structures. In P. F. Yuan, J. Yao, C. Yan, X. Wang, & N. Leach (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2020 DigitalFUTURES. Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
  - BibTeX
  BibTeX
  @inproceedings{Qi, abstract = {This paper presents and investigates a cyber-physical fabrication workflow, which can respond to the deviations between built- and designed form in real-time with vision augmentation. We apply this method for large scale structures built from natural bamboo poles. Raw bamboo poles obtain evolutionarily optimized fibrous layouts ideally suitable for lightweight and sustainable building construction. Nevertheless, their intrinsically imprecise geometries pose a challenge for reliable, automated construction processes. Despite recent digital advancements, building with bamboo poles is still a labor-intensive task and restricted to building typologies where accuracy is of minor importance. The integration of structural bamboo poles with other building layers is often limited by tolerance issues at the interfaces, especially for large scale structures where deviations accumulate incrementally. To address these challenges, an adaptive fabrication process is developed, in which existing deviations can be compensated by changing the geometry of subsequent joints to iteratively correct the pose of further elements. A vision-based sensing system is employed to three-dimensionally scan the bamboo elements before and during construction. Computer vision algorithms are used to process and interpret the sensory data. The updated conditions are streamed to the computational model which computes tailor-made bending stiff joint geometries that can then be directly fabricated on-the-fly. In this paper, we contextualize our research and investigate the performance domains of the proposed workflow.}, author = {Qi, Yue and Zhong, Ruqing and Kaiser, Benjamin and Nguyen, Long and Wagner, Hans Jakob and Verl, Alexander and Menges, Achim}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2020 DigitalFUTURES}, editor = {Yuan, P. F. and Yao, J. and Yan, C. and Wang, X. and Leach, N.}, file = {:C\:/Users/ac128044/Google Drive/ICD_Wagner/01_Publikationen/2006_VISUAL_SEMANTICS/2005_CDRF_Tongji_2020/20200624_Submission_2/Submission/Working with Uncertainties_An Adaptive Fabrication Workflow for Bamboo Structures_0624.pdf:pdf}, publisher = {Springer Nature Switzerland AG}, title = {{Working with Uncertainties: An Adaptive Fabrication Workflow for Bamboo Structures}}, year = 2020 }
2. Wagner, H. J., Alvarez, M., Groenewolt, A., & Menges, A. (2020). Towards digital automation flexibility in large-scale timber construction: integrative robotic prefabrication and co-design of the BUGA Wood Pavilion. Construction Robotics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41693-020-00038-5
  - BibTeX
  BibTeX
  @article{Wagner2020, abstract = {This paper discusses the digital automation workflows and co-design methods that made possible the comprehensive robotic prefabrication of the BUGA Wood Pavilion as a large-scale production case study of robotic timber construction. Latest research in architectural robotics often focuses on the advancement of sin- gular aspects of integrated digital fabrication and computational design tech- niques. Few researchers discuss how a multitude of different robotic processes can come together into seamless, collaborative robotic fabrication workflows and how a high level of interaction within larger teams of computational design and robotic fabrication experts can be achieved. It will be increasingly important to discuss suitable methods for the management of robotics and computational de- sign in construction for the successful implementation of robotic fabrication sys- tems in the context of the industry. We present here how a co-design approach enabled the organization of computational design decisions in reciprocal feedback with the fabrication planning, simulation and robotic code generation. We demonstrate how this approach can implement direct and curated reciprocal feed- back between all planning domains that paves the way for fast-paced integrative project development. Furthermore, we discuss how the modularization of computational routines simplify the management and computational control of complex robotic construction efforts on a per-project basis and open the door for the flexible reutilization of developed digital technologies across projects and building systems.}, author = {Wagner, Hans Jakob and Alvarez, Martin and Groenewolt, Abel and Menges, Achim}, doi = {10.1007/s41693-020-00038-5}, file = {:C\:/Users/ac128044/Google Drive/ICD_Wagner/03_PhD/Reading/REVISION_CORO_Automation_Flexibility_clean.pdf:pdf}, journal = {Construction Robotics}, title = {{Towards digital automation flexibility in large-scale timber construction: integrative robotic prefabrication and co-design of the BUGA Wood Pavilion}}, year = 2020 }
3. Wagner, H. J., Alvarez, M., Kyjanek, O., Bhiri, Z., Buck, M., & Menges, A. (2020). Flexible and transportable robotic timber construction platform – TIM. Automation in Construction, 120, Article 120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103400
  - BibTeX
  BibTeX
  @article{Wagner, abstract = {This paper presents a new approach to robotic fabrication in the building industry through the conceptualization, development and evaluation of a largescale, transportable and flexible robotic timber construction platform – named TIM. Novel solutions are necessary to make robotic fabrication technologies more accessible for timber construction companies. The developed robotic system is location independent and reconfigurable. It can be rapidly integrated into existing fabrication environments of typical carpentries on a per-project basis. This allows the exploitation of emerging synergies between conventional craft and specialized automation technologies and benefits both quality and productivity of the trade. We portrait how the platform enabled the effective robotic prefabrication of a complex segmented wood shell structure and discuss the fabrication system based on critical performance parameters. Further research is needed to disentangle the mutual dependencies of building-systems and respective automation technologies.}, author = {Wagner, Hans Jakob and Alvarez, Martin and Kyjanek, Ondrej and Bhiri, Zied and Buck, Matthias and Menges, Achim}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103400}, file = {:C\:/Users/ac128044/Google Drive/ICD_Wagner/01_Publikationen/1906_TIM/1906_AUTCON_TIM/20200127_AUTCON_TIM.pdf:pdf;:C\:/Users/ac128044/Google Drive/ICD_Wagner/01_Publikationen/1906_TIM/1906_AUTCON_TIM/PROOF/pagination_AUTCON_103400.pdf:pdf}, journal = {Automation in Construction}, language = {English}, month = {12}, number = 120, pages = {1-17}, title = {{Flexible and transportable robotic timber construction platform – TIM}}, url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0926580520309808}, year = 2020 }
4. Wagner, H. J., Chai, H., Guo, Z., Menges, A., & Yuan, P. F. (2020). Towards an On-site Fabrication System for Bespoke , Unlimited and Monolithic Timber Slabs. IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) Las Vegas, NV, USA (Virtual) - Workshop on Construction and Architecture Robotics, 2020. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.14098.68802
  - BibTeX
  BibTeX
  @inproceedings{Wagner2020b, abstract = {We present the concept- and contextualization of a robotic fabrication system for bespoke, monolithic wood slabs for multi-story building structures. Timber Construction is seen as the most promising technology for the sustainable development of continuously growing urban areas around the world, resulting in increasing legislative support. Although employing high levels of automation in prefabrication, wood building systems and construction techniques are currently hardly competitive outside of modular construction paradigms – restricting the material's use in the majority of building typologies. In many projects, the use of concrete is still preferred, as slabs can be poured into monolithic slabs of various geometries and steel reinforcement can be freely arranged according to structural requirements. In order to allow engineered wood structures to be used across all building types, we propose a co-designed wood construction system. A respective robotic fabrication platform can be employed in two on-site fabrication scenarios. In both cases the mobile robot moves relative to a preinstalled wood-panel surface that serves as semi-controlled environment and is incrementally reinforced through iterative placement of wood laths using nail-press gluing. This results in multi-directional, bespoke timber slabs of unlimited dimensions and continuous stiffness gradients.}, address = {Las Vegas, NV (Virtual)}, author = {Wagner, Hans Jakob and Chai, Hua and Guo, Zhixian and Menges, Achim and Yuan, Philip F}, booktitle = {IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) Las Vegas, NV, USA (Virtual) - Workshop on Construction and Architecture Robotics}, doi = {10.13140/RG.2.2.14098.68802}, eventdate = {29.10.2020}, eventtitle = {IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) - Workshop on Construction and Architecture Robotics}, file = {:C\:/Users/ac128044/Google Drive/ICD_Wagner/01_Publikationen/PUBLICATION_COLLECTION/2020_IEEE_MOBILE_PLATFORM.pdf:pdf}, isbn = {978-1-7281-6211-9}, publisher = {IEEE/RSJ}, title = {{Towards an On-site Fabrication System for Bespoke , Unlimited and Monolithic Timber Slabs}}, url = {http://ras.papercept.net/images/temp/IROS/files/3672.pdf}, venue = {Las Vegas, NV, USA (Virtual)}, volume = 2020, year = 2020 }
2019
1. Alvarez, M., Wagner, H. J., Groenewolt, A., Krieg, O., Kyjanek, O., Aldinger, L., Bechert, S., Sonntag, D., Menges, A., & Knippers, J. (2019). The buga wood pavilion - Integrative interdisciplinary advancements of digital timber architecture. ACADIA - Ubiquity and Autonomy Proceedings of the ACADIA Conference 2019, 490--499. https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.2019.490
  - BibTeX
  BibTeX
  @article{alvarez_buga_2019, author = {Alvarez, Martin and Wagner, Hans Jakob and Groenewolt, Abel and Krieg, Oliver and Kyjanek, Ondrej and Aldinger, Lotte and Bechert, Simon and Sonntag, Daniel and Menges, Achim and Knippers, Jan}, doi = {10.52842/conf.acadia.2019.490}, journal = {ACADIA - Ubiquity and Autonomy [Proceedings of the ACADIA Conference 2019]}, pages = {490--499}, title = {The buga wood pavilion - {Integrative} interdisciplinary advancements of digital timber architecture}, url = {https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.2019.490}, year = 2019 }

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jan Knippers

Deputy Spokesperson

Phone: +49 711 685 83280

E-Mail

Prof. Achim Menges

Spokesperson

Phone: +49 711 685 82786

E-Mail

Timber Construction 4.0

TIMBER CONSTRUCTION 4.0

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS

RESEARCHERS

FUNDING

PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS

2020

BibTeX

BibTeX

BibTeX

BibTeX

2019

BibTeX

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jan Knippers

Prof. Achim Menges

Audience

Formalities

Services

Organization

Timber Construction 4.0

TIMBER CONSTRUCTION 4.0

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS

RESEARCHERS

FUNDING

PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS

2020

BibTeX

BibTeX

BibTeX

BibTeX

2019

BibTeX

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jan Knippers

Prof. Achim Menges

Cluster of Excellence IntCDC

Audience

Formalities

Services

Organization