The Master in Robotics and Advanced Construction (MRAC) seeks to train a new generation of interdisciplinary professionals who are capable of facing our growing need for a more sustainable and optimised construction ecosystem. The Master is focused on the emerging design and market opportunities arising from novel robotic and advanced manufacturing systems.
Through a mixture of seminars, workshops, and studio projects, the master programme challenges the traditional processes in the Construction Sector. It investigates how advances in robotics and digital fabrication tools change the way we build and develop processes and design tools for such new production methods.
During this course, we delved into the methodologies of modular building using wood modules designed by Gilles Retsin. By employing techniques like stacking and post-tensioning, we investigated both the potential and constraints of these modules. Our journey started with the assembly of the module, during which we constructed elements such as beam, column, opening and … Read more
Robotic Wood Craft is looking to minimize the raw material foodprint through an efficient repurposing project. The project develops a Data workflow from the scanning of the logs to the Robotic Fabrication and assembly of the pavilion. The final prototype is a post tension structure, with different robot milling joints that maintain the connection in … Read more
The industry of construction creates most of the waste in the world. By 2025 we expect to reach 2.2 billion tons globally. As a solution of this problem, industry 4.0 proposed the Additive manufacturing process, which is looking for the optimization of fabrication and construction adding layer by layer different materials; this process started being … Read more
The reference marking system for Additive Manufacturing Context Additive manufacturing (AM) technologies have established and grown significantly over the past few decades, solidifying themselves as a mature and competitive alternative across various sectors of fabrication and construction. This development has been observed across multiple levels and applications of production, primarily due to its remarkable properties … Read more
Preliminary steps towards a hybrid workflow for smooth 3D printed surfaces. Aim To develop a hybrid workflow to obtain smooth surfaces on 3D printed clay for improved alignment and surface finish. State of the Art Additive manufacturing enables the precise and cost-effective creation of complex designs while minimizing waste. One of the shortcomings common to … Read more
Introduction Our use of forestry resources has seen an increase in efficiency aimed at standardizing wood, a material that is inherently non-standard and heterogeneous by nature. However, the byproducts generated from this process are predominantly used for energy through combustion rather than being transformed into useful products. As more wood products are expected in construction, … Read more
The construction industry has shown an increasing interest in adapting to more environmentally friendly materials, with wood gaining popularity as a natural and sustainable option for buildings. However, the wood industry contributes a significant percentage of energy consumption during the entire wood lifecycle, encompassing tree cutting, transportation to sawmills, and delivery to construction sites. Additionally, … Read more
In this workshop, we collaborated all together to investigate the neuro-evolution (artificial evolution defining neural networks) as a strategy to develop autonomous behaviours of mobile robots (in this workshop we used Turtlebots) to perform given tasks. We used N.E.A.T. (NeuroEvolution of Augmenting Topologies) as a method framework for artificial evolution of these robot controllers and increased … Read more
perceiving the world in a human shell called body acting as transition between physical and spiritual The project tackle the understanding of the human existence and complexity of how every aspect in the body perceive life in a different way. “Who am I ?” provides you to feel and experience yourself in a physical world … Read more
Ceramiquest draws inspiration from the ancient art of pottery, augmenting it with virtual reality technologies to create a platform that enables users to generate and modify pottery geometries in an immersive environment. By digitizing this art form while retaining the manual generation process, Ceramiquest simplifies pottery-making and allows to 3D print your virtual creations with … Read more
In recent years, the exploration of multisensory experiences has gained significant attention in the culinary industries. This project focuses on the potential of leveraging virtual reality (VR) to alter and augment the flavours and qualities of beverages and food – specifically wine in our case – through the integration of music and visuals. Virtual reality … Read more
In recent years, there has been a growing interest in developing multiagent systems that combine the strengths of human, robotic, and virtual agents to perform complex tasks. In this project we theorize on how such a system could be implemented in bricklaying at a construction site, which traditionally relies heavily on human labor. With the … Read more
Autonomous emergency response and safety evaluation system In a catastrophic event geographical region, robots are deployed to collect and process data, allowing the rescue team to analyze the situation from a safe distance and provide an effective rescue operation. Dangerous zones can be accessed by robots without any harm and no human life needs to … Read more
Discrete Assemblies with Gilles Retsin Introduction How can primordial components be aggregated to form complex structures, that are at once easy to assemble and comfortable to live in? This was the question that defined our workshop with instructor Gilles Retsin. During the workshop, Gilles introduced us to his system of assembling buildings from discrete components. … Read more
Parts that Precede Buildings This course helped us to gain a comprehensive understanding of discrete building systems with the use of prefabrication and automation. During this one week workshop, discussed topics such as timber prefabrication, robotics and discrete computation for later on participating with a hands-on approach to build several structures using timber boxes and … Read more
Furniture has become an essential part of modern day society. Problem Currently an average consumer has a two choices, one to either shop at IKEA and get a generic furniture that every household has or to go for a designer furniture that breaks their bank. With the consumers increasingly looking for products that represent their … Read more
Sorting for Salvageable Materials This course was mainly to understand automated collaborative multiagent systems in different environments. Term’s 3 topic (Human-Machine-Collaboration) is recognized through this course by exploring the possibilities of the processes and us being capable of mapping in different diagrams how we imagine a scenario with an automated procedure. For this task, we … Read more
The reference marking system for 3DP processes Problem Traditional 3DP processes lack accurate and reliable reference markers, which can cause errors and inaccuracies in the final print. This can be especially problematic for cyber-physical set-ups that require precise calibration and location of physical geometries on the 3D model. Solution This issue is resolved by Print … Read more
Optimizing 3D Printing with AI prediction Introduction In this seminar we applied the concepts of machine learning to estimate the deformation during drying of simplified 3D printed clay objects. To do this, we trained an artificial neural network (ANN) to predict the movement of discrete points within the printed object. This project is very relevant … Read more
The analyzed material of our team in this class is clay, which is a fine/grained sediment primarily composed of small particles of minerals that are formed when rocks are exposed to different elements such as rain, wind and temperature changes. It can be considered as a natural material which is taken from the Earth, however … Read more
Our project involves the fabrication of a curved surface using cork panels that have been discretized into unique four-sided shapes. Our previous approach involved cutting each panel individually, but we aim to streamline the process by using machine learning to classify the panels into five distinct groups. We will then design and create a mold … Read more
