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This paper discusses the digital automation workflows and co-design methods that made possible the comprehensive robotic prefabrication of the BUGA Wood Pavilion—a large-scale production case study of robotic timber construction. Latest research in architectural robotics often focuses on the advancement of singular aspects of integrated digital fabrication and computational design techniques. 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 design in construction for the successful implementation of robotic fabrication systems 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 feedback between all planning domains—paving 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.

This research presents a cooperative heterogeneous multi-robot fabrication system for the spatial winding of filament materials. The system is based on the cooperation of a six-axis robotic arm and a customized 2 + 2 axis CNC gantry system. Heterogeneous multi-robot cooperation allows to deploy the strategy of Spatial Winding: a new method of sequential spatial fiber arrangement, based on directly interlocking filament-filament connections, achieved through wrapping one filament around another. This strategy allows to create lightweight non-regular fibrous space frame structures. The new material system was explored through physical models and digital simulations prior to deployment with the proposed robotic fabrication process. An adaptable frame setup was developed which allows the fabrication of a variety of geometries within the same frame. By introducing a multi-step curing process that integrates with the adaptable frame, the iterative production of continuous large-scale spatial frame structures is possible. This makes the structure’s scale agnostic of robotic reach and reduces the necessary formwork to the bare minimum. Through leveraging the capacities of two cooperating machines, the system allows to counteract some of their limitations. A flexible, dynamic and collaborative fabrication system is presented as a strategy to tailor the fiber in space and expand the design possibilities of lightweight fiber structures. The artifact of the proposed fabrication process is a direct expression of the material tectonics and the robotic fabrication system.

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