@article{doi:10.1080/24751448.2023.2245724, author = {Joris Burger, Ena Lloret-Fritschi, Marc Akermann, Daniel Schwendemann, Fabio Gramazio and Matthias Kohler}, title = {Circular Formwork: Recycling of 3D Printed Thermoplastic Formwork for Concrete}, journal = {Technology|Architecture + Design}, volume = {7}, number = {2}, pages = {204-215}, year = {2023}, publisher = {Routledge}, doi = {10.1080/24751448.2023.2245724}, URL = { https://doi.org/10.1080/24751448.2023.2245724 }, eprint = { https://doi.org/10.1080/24751448.2023.2245724 }

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@article {Jami:2023:2518-6582:1, title = "4D formwork for robotic concrete spraying", journal = "Proceedings of IASS Annual Symposia", parent_itemid = "infobike://iass/piass", publishercode ="iass", year = "2023", volume = "2023", number = "25", publication date ="2023-10-01T00:00:00", pages = "1-12", itemtype = "ARTICLE", issn = "2518-6582", eissn = "2518-6582", url = "https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iass/piass/2023/00002023/00000025/art00006", keyword = "digital fabrication, 4D-printing, concrete spraying, architecture, formwork", author = "Jami, Guillaume and Jenny, Selen Ercan and Wei, Chenguyan and Forsythe, Hamilton and Feihl, Nicolas and Tibbits, Skylar and Lloret-Fritschi, Ena", abstract = "Globally, concrete is the second most used material after water. On average, three tons of concrete is consumed per person per year, while each ton of concrete added to the atmosphere contributes one ton of greenhouse gases. Because of this negative environmental impact, research institutions, architects, and construction professionals seek to reduce concrete usage in the built environment. Materialoptimized structures offer one approach; however, such structures often require custom-made formworks that are disposed of after a single use and are thus expensive and waste-generating. Recently, several unconventional solutions for formwork have emerged that produce material-optimized structures without generating significant waste, including the examples of lost-, stay-in-place, and dynamicformworks. This paper examines 4D-printing technology, which is tested in terms of scalability to produce a building component through fiber-reinforced concrete (FRC) spraying. With an empirical study, we evaluate two different 4D-printing techniques: 1) textile 4D-printing and 2) thermoplastic 4Dprinting, both enabling the production of self-shaping, lightweight textile formworks. Furthermore, we present the first prototypical results and discuss the challenges and next steps for 4D-printed formworks that promise a more sustainable use of concrete.", }

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@article{burger_eggshell_2023, title = {Eggshell {Pavilion}: a reinforced concrete structure fabricated using robotically {3D} printed formwork}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s41693-023-00090-x}, journal = {Construction Robotics}, author = {Burger, Joris and Aejmelaeus-Lindström, Petrus and Gürel, Seyma and Niketic, Filip and Lloret-Fritschi, Ena and Flatt, Robert J. and Gramazio, Fabio and Kohler, Matthias}, year = {2023}, }

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@PHDTHESIS{20.500.11850-660060, author = {Johns, Ryan Luke}, year = {2023}, publisher = {ETH Zurich}, address = {Zurich}, copyright = {In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted}, size = {178 p.}, language = {en}, abstract = {On-site robotic construction not only has the potential to enable architectural assemblies that exceed the size and complexity practical with laboratory-based prefabrication methods, but also offers the opportunity to leverage context-specific, locally-sourced materials that are inexpensive, abundant, and low in embodied energy. Toward these ends, this doctoral research is focused on developing a novel process for the robotic construction of dry stone walls in situ, bounded by design constraints and facilitated by a customized autonomous hydraulic excavator. These walls are built using as-found natural stones and reclaimed demolition debris, using a construction pipeline that automatically collects an inventory of these materials by detecting, grasping, and 3D-scanning them directly on site. Given a limited inventory of these digitized stones, a geometric planning algorithm determines how each of these objects should be positioned toward the formation of stable and explicitly-shaped structures. By adapting knowledge from traditional stone masonry practices, this planning algorithm uses a combination of geometric features to seed hypothesis stone placement candidates. These candidates are then refined toward stable and geometrically-aligned solutions using a combination of torque- and penetration- constrained iterative closest point registration, and physics simulation. Ultimately, these solutions are classified for placement viability, using a supervised model that considers a 3-channel signed-distance-field data-representation of each solution that encapsulates the candidate stone, the local context of terrain and previously-placed stones, and the freeform target-wall geometry. To accommodate settling and process tolerances, the geometric planner works iteratively, using information from an accumulated LiDAR map to regularly update the as-built structure after each stone is placed—and before each successive search for new candidate placements. Using this approach, the planner is able to inform the construction of double-layer walls, using highly nonstandard stones and debris—creating structures with a 60% fill-to-void ratio within arbitrarily-defined wall boundaries. This process is further informed by large-scale, outdoor physical experiments. These experiments resulted in the construction of three robotically-constructed dry stone walls, that are built using gneiss boulders, erratics unearthed on construction sites, and salvaged concrete demolition debris. These demonstrators include a 40-stone s-curved wall (5 x 1.6 x 3 m), and a linear freestanding wall (10 x 1.7 x 4 m) constructed with 24% reclaimed concrete. At the last stage of development, this work is evaluated through the first robotic construction of a permanent and publicly-accessible stone retaining wall (65.5 x 1.8 x 6 m) consisting of 938 unique elements—and that is integrated with robotic landscape features based on the doctoral research of Dominic Jud (Robotic Systems Lab) and Ilmar Hurkxkens (Chair of Landscape Architecture). Collectively, these demonstrations saw the robotic placement of over one thousand coarse boulders, with each weighing an average of one tonne. The physical testing conducted during these experiments revealed shortcomings and necessary improvements to the process, and allowed us to provide the first benchmarks for large-scale robotic assembly with nonstandard stones. These studies demonstrated robotic stone placement rates up to 12.2 min/stone, and quantified the ability of this method to reduce emissions by upwards of 40% when compared to equivalently performing concrete structures. This work illustrates the potential of autonomous heavy construction vehicles to build adaptively with highly irregular, abundant and sustainable materials that require little to no transportation and preprocessing—creating structures which benefit aesthetically and environmentally from the properties of regionally-specific natural materials.}, keywords = {Dry stone walls; Robotic construction; Digital fabrication}, type = {Doctoral Thesis}, DOI = {https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000660060}, title = {Autonomous Dry Stone. Mobile Robotic Construction with Naturally Nonstandard Materials}, school = {ETH Zurich} }

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