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The increasing need for safe, inexpensive, and sustainable construction, combined with novel technological enablers, has made large-scale construction by robot teams an active research area. Collective robotic construction (CRC) specifically concerns embodied, autonomous, multirobot systems that modify a shared environment according to high-level user-specified goals. CRC tightly integrates architectural design, the construction process, mechanisms, and control to achieve scalability and adaptability. In this lecture, which is closely tied to the related review article in Science Robotics 2020, we will discuss research trends, open questions, and performance metrics. We will also stress the importance of appreciating the different motivations that drive research-driven versus application-driven developments in robotics as it pertains to architecture.
The University of Stuttgart has established its new Cluster of Excellence "Integrative Computer-Based Design and Construction for Architecture" (IntCDC) in 2019. With an initial funding period of seven years, a cluster of excellence is the most significant and extensive funding provided by the German Research Foundation (DFG). This is the first time that a Cluster of Excellence has been awarded for the field of architecture. The Cluster of Excellence IntCDC contributes to establishing an internationally visible research center.
Kirstin Petersen and Nils Napp (Cornell University)
Professors
Assistant Professors Kirstin Petersen and Nils Napp work in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell University, both received the US National Science Foundation’s prestigious CAREER award for their work in state-of-the-art robotics. Petersen’s work focuses on bio-inspired design and coordination of robot collectives, as well as studies of their biological counterparts. Napp’s work focuses on design and control strategies for systems that operate with uncertainty, navigating the tension between model tractability and applicability. Petersen and Napp have a shared interest in collective robotic construction, spanning from blueprint-specific to functional structures, built with anything from custom bricks and sandbags to in-situ materials. Beyond robotics, they both work with entomologists to better understand how natural swarms exhibit superior construction capabilities despite the limited situational awareness of the individual insects.