Building timber structures with robots!

In recent years, the necessity of using renewable and sustainable resources in the construction sector has become obvious. This has led to a revived interest in the natural advantages of timber as a building material. To this end, the Laboratory for Timber Constructions (IBOIS) aims to develop more efficient design and construction methods using digital tools such as robots, CNC machines, scanners, and augmented reality. Current research focuses on the development of so-called Integrally-Attached Timber Plate Structures (IATPS). This innovative construction system is inspired by ancient Japanese carpentry techniques. It uses interlocking joints to connect timber panels and create outstanding spatial structures (see below). Using timber connections provides a more sustainable alternative to standard gluing and screwing processes. The joints also help to guide the pieces during the assembly transforming the construction in a kind of large-scale puzzle. Another advantage of IATPS is the possibility to prefabricate all the pieces with the help of state-of-the art digital tools such as CNC routers and robots. To facilitate the adoption of IATPS in the industrial world, IBOIS researchers have developed a virtual design interface that helps architects, engineers and contractors to automate the creation of timber joints between the panels, compute associated structural analysis, as well as generate fabrication toolpaths and robotic trajectories.