Architecture-scale human-assisted additive manufacturing

Abstract

Figure 1: An overview of our method: (i) aggregation of printed chopsticks solidified with wood glue; (ii) a specially developed handheld printing device to consistently feed a chopstick-glue composite; (iii) print guidance system implemented by a projector-camera system; (iv) the constructed pavilion as a case study. Note that the method is still experimental, and the upper part of this pavilion was constructed separately as panels and assembled later. AbstractRecent digital fabrication tools have opened up accessibility to personalized rapid prototyping; however, such tools are limited to product-scale objects. The materials currently available for use in 3D printing are too fine for large-scale objects, and CNC gantry sizes limit the scope of printable objects. In this paper, we propose a new method for printing architecture-scale objects. Our proposal includes three developments: (i) a construction material consisting of chopsticks and glue, (ii) a handheld chopstick dispenser, and (iii) a printing guidance system that uses projection mapping. The proposed chopstickglue material is cost effective, environmentally sustainable, and can be printed more quickly than conventional materials. The developed handheld dispenser enables consistent feeding of the chopstickglue material composite. The printing guidance system -consisting of a depth camera and a projectorevaluates a given shape in real time and indicates where humans should deposit chopsticks by projecting a simple color code onto the form under construction. Given the mechanical specifications of the stickglue composite, an experimental pavilion was designed as a case study of the proposed method and built without scaffoldings and formworks. The case study also revealed several fundamental limitations, such as the projector does not work in daylight, which requires future investigations.

Integrated Workflows

“…The aim of their hybrid workflow is to support users' manual dexterity and help them for transforming design intent to physical prototypes while maintaining their autonomy. Yoshida et al [101] implemented the formative capability of the stick aggregation technique to build architectural-scale structures. With a custom designed stick dispenser which drops glued wood chopsticks, they have built aggregated organic structures.…”

“…Available materials for 3D printing are not suitable for architectural scale prototypes. Laser cutters CNC machines have a limited work space [101]. Also, most fabrication processes are strongly tied to CAD software which brings limitations with their GUIs.…”

MatchSticks

“…3D printable connectors were combined with up-cycled plastic bottles [8]. Architectural scale objects were created by a foam depositing heterogeneous robot arm [6] and jammed wooden sticks [25]. Multiple efforts explore the transformation of a 2D fabricated geometry into larger 3D objects [1,16].…”

Environment-Scale Fabrication

“…However both these systems require a large CNC gantry. To avoid gantries, some alternative approaches employ hand-held dispensers ejecting a stick-glue composite [27] or tubes of adhesive tape [1]. In contrast to these approaches, we seek to maintain productscale resolution using commonly available technology, while massively reducing required print volume.…”