PhD Examination of the thesis, Design-to-Fabrication Workflow for Raw-Sawn_timber using Joinery SOlver

  • Jeffrey Huang (Eksaminator)
  • Yves Weinand (Eksaminator)
  • Larsen, N. M. (Eksaminator)
  • Ayres, P. (Eksaminator)
  • Marco Bakker (Eksaminator)

Aktivitet: Undersøgelse Eksamination

Beskrivelse

Currently, the Swiss timber industry in mountain areas largely exports unprocessed lumberand imports finished timber products due to the lack of digital tools. By using new digitaldesign-to-production workflows, it is possible to investigate new building systems for small-scale structures using local timber for local applications.While automation in raw wood fabrication is a well-studied field, there is a lack of integrationinto the local timber industry. In addition, a few large robotic companies focus on raw-sawn-timber fabrication, leading to the high-level automation in fabrication but do not offer anyarchitectural design methods. Architect and fabricator, in the raw wood context, are seenas two different parties. Research in architectural digital manufacturing demonstrate thepotential in design with raw timber without the dependence on the large centralized timbercompanies. Often the focus is given to single case studies without questioning the automationin the local circular economies resulting in the small-scale semi-automated fab-lab workshops.Consequently, it is necessary to revisit individual design-to-fabrication workflows for wholetimber structures and propose new open-source, extendable and reusable techniques.First, a joinery algorithm is proposed to ease the drafting process of pair-wise wood-woodconnections. The idea of the joinery algorithm is based on a design modelling separationinto two independent algorithms: a) global architectural design, and b) local automation ofwood-wood connections. These are the principal design requirements for the algorithm: a)re-usability of joinery methods for more than one case study, b) joinery library, c) automaticwood-wood connection generation, d) ensuring fabrication constraints e) propose a fastcollision-based graph method, f ) integrate joinery algorithm into a common CAD modellingenvironment, and g) employ minimal models for fast computation.Second, the geometrical irregularities of raw wood require laser-scanning and robotic integra-tion. The Scanning part proposes novel solutions for raw wood fabrication: a) point-cloudprocessing, b) market-less alignment within a robotic setup, and c) calibration guidelines forlaser scanners. The robotic section proposes a tool-path planning algorithm to shorten thefabrication file preparation. The design recommendations for machining setups are given to ensure secure, stable and accurate fabrication.Third, timber joinery prototypes are assembled to validate the proposed workflow. Three typesare developed: segmented timber shells, Nexorades and a truss from tree forks. Additionally,the modelling framework is interconnected with tool-path planning to manifest the validity offabrication concerning a joint geometry. Finally, the developed algorithms are open-sourced.In conclusion, the design-to-fabrication workflow proves that it is possible to detect woodjoinery types based on minimal CAD models. From a user perspective, these models do notrequire hard-coded parametric skills and, as a result, applicable to CAD modelling interfaces.Finally, the integration of the low resolution referencing system of the laser scanner and the in-dustrial robotic arm into the joinery generation method verifies the link between architecturaldesign and manufacturing processes
Periode5 jun. 2021
EksaminandPetras Vestartas
Eksamen afholdt
  • ÉCOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FÉDÉRALE DE LAUSANNE (EPFL)
Grad af anerkendelseInternational