Structural Adaptation through Stiffness Tuning

AI-supported approach for human-building interaction implemented at furniture scale

“…Component and material design was Voronoi-based and involved consideration with respect to stability, lightweight, and comfort requiring variable stiffness and 3D printing without support. 4 The variable stiffness concept developed in previous research (Hidding et al, 2019) has been implemented in this case study in order to create cushioning for the seating areas while keeping the structural integrity of the furniture components, i.e., booths intact. The cushioning principle was prototyped by robotically milling into Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) that in this case was emulating the support surface, which has high stiffness.…”

“…In the case of robotic 3D printing, the angles of the geometry have to be optimized 4 This implies that the angles of the faces of the Voronoi cells have to be within 3D printing tolerances with printing angles between −45 to +45 degrees in relation to the printing bed. to be within the angle constraints of −45 to +45 degrees for printing without support material (Hidding et al, 2019). Also, the size of the components and subcomponents are optimized to fit in the bounding box determined by the reachability of the robotic arm.…”