Robotic Fabrication

Catalog description

Automation and robotics have helped manufacturing increase productivity by 1,500% since 1945 (McKinsey 2017). In contrast, however, construction productivity has remained relatively stagnant during the same time. The construction industry is facing pressure to change. For the robotics industry, construction presents potential use cases and unique applications that can utilize a variety of evolving technologies from drones, ground robotics, teleoperation, machine vision, additive manufacturing, and assistive robotics. These technologies take advantage of the digital revolution and utilize ideas in automobile and aerospace engineering. Our interest in these technologies is that they open new opportunities for design. Robotic fabrication will explore the theory and design of a project that will form a component of the culminating design studio for the MSD AAD program. Theory will be explored through a series of lectures and the design component will focus on a one to one scale fabrication of a project determined by the design studio curriculum.