Association for Robots in Architecture -

CALL for PAPERS

by Robots in Architecture|on March 3, 2012 |in Robots in Architecture

Call for Papers | Rob|Arch 2012: Robotic Fabrication in Architecture, Art, and Design | www.robarch2012.org
Workshops: 14.-16.12.2012 / Conference: 17.-18.12.2012

ROB|ARCH has been initiated by the Association for Robots in Architecture as a new conference series on the use of robotic fabrication in architecture, art, and design, closely linking industry with cutting-edge research institutions.

For the first time, ROB|ARCH 2012 will bring together international university partners who will open their robotic research labs to a creative use and present an insight in their applied robotic research at various locations throughout Europe. While the international workshops will be distributed at university partners, the following conference will take place in Vienna, a city well known for its living quality, but also a hotspot for technology and innovation.

The internationally renowned publishing house Springer Wien/New York will publish and market the proceedings of the conference worldwide with the following topics:

-design to robotic fabrication
-rapid prototyping with industrial robots
-mass customisation
-robots beyond industrial uses
-robotic aesthetics
-customized robotics
-digital and physical robotic interfaces

Schedule:

13.12.2012
Free sponsor “pre-workshops” for ABB Robot Studio and Grasshopper

14.12. – 16.12.2012
Conference workshops:
@Rotterdam: 2x ABB IRB6400 by TU Delft and University of Michigan/Jelle Feringa & Wes McGee
@Stuttgart: KUKA KR125/2 by University Stuttgart / Achim Menges & Tobias Schwinn
@Graz: ABB IRB6600 by TU Graz / Andreas Trummer
@Zurich: KUKA KR150 by ETH Zurich and ROB Technologies / Gramazio & Kohler
@Vienna: 2x KUKA LWR by TU Vienna / Marcus Vincze et al.
@Vienna: ABB IRB120 by HAL / Thibault Schwartz

17.12.-18.12.2012
Conference sessions at TU Vienna

Paper Submission

We invite authors to submit papers with original research relating to the use of robots in architecture, art, and design. An international scientific committee consisting of researchers and practising architects will evaluate the papers and provide feedback to the authors. The selected papers are published in the Springer proceedings and presented at the conference in Vienna.

Electronic Submission of Abstracts 04.06.2012
Electronic Submission of Full Papers 16.07.2012
Author notification 10.09. 2012
Final Paper due 01.10.2012

Information and Contact
See www.robarch2012.org for details and up-to-date information. For any questions regarding the Rob|Arch 2012 conference, please contact chair@robarch2012.org

Sigrid Brell Cokcan & Johannes Braumann
Conference Chairs, Association for Robots in Architecture

Permalink to Major KUKA|prc Update

Major KUKA|prc Update

by Robots in Architecture|on February 26, 2012 |in Robots in Architecture

We are proud to present the latest version of KUKA|prc – parametric robot control for Grasshopper!

This is a major release and includes various significant improvements, including…

…kinematic simulation of multiple robots
…compatibility with the new KUKA KRC4 control unit
…customizable end-effector geometry
…reachability analysis
…axis limits
…checking for large axis reorientations
…custom start/end position for each job
…and many more!

Download it from HERE and see the video above or HERE!

For troubleshooting or feature requests, send an eMail to robots [at] robotsinarchitecture.org

Please note that this update breaks compatibility with older versions of the plugin, so when you open a file with an older version of the KUKA|prc plugin, the old component will disappear with an error message. Just put in the new component from the KUKA|prc tab, re-connect it, and you’re good to go.

Permalink to New additions to the Robots in Architecture map

New additions to the Robots in Architecture map

by Robots in Architecture|on February 2, 2012 |in Robots in Architecture

The robots in architecture are multiplying! Our list of robots in architecture now contains no less than 18 institutions with robots in architecture. We welcome the most recent additions: McGill University in Canada recently got a Fanuc robot, and Radlab in Boston informed us that they’re using a KUKA KR15. The IaaC in Barcelona also took delivery of a KUKA robot in January.

Exciting times!

Permalink to Robots in Architecture on tour again!

Robots in Architecture on tour again!

by Robots in Architecture|on January 10, 2012 |in Robots in Architecture

March 21, invited lecture at Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Strasbourg, France
April 25-28, research paper presentation at CAADRIA 2012 (17th international Conference of the Association for Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia) Chennai, India
June 13-14, invited lecture at VDI-Fachtagung Industrielle Robotik 2012, AUTOMATION 2012 in Baden-Baden, Germany

Permalink to HAL V0.02 Update

HAL V0.02 Update

by Robots in Architecture|on January 9, 2012 |in Robots in Architecture

Thibault Schwartz has updated his HAL robot plugin to version 0.02! You can get it from here.

*New components
TargetDeviationCheck utility
Tooldata declaration utility
Wobjdata declaration utility
Overrides utility

* Fixes
Kinematic Solver: bug with second axis rotation is solved Milling Head: endmill geometry is now generated. TCP plane error has been corrected.
Rapid Generator has been re-written, and is now working with work objects. A “CorrecTool” option allows to come back to the ancient behavior, which was based on a tool with a null quaternion. Speeds and Zones automatic prefix has been suppressed. It now handles 17000 couple of instructions (declaration & motion) / seconde.
The Rapid.mod has been slightly changed: you can now add declarations (ToolDatas, SpeedData, WobjData, etc.) and overrides (ConfJ, ConfL, SingArea, etc.)
The Toolpath Discretization component was buggy on polylines, it is fixed.
The Ruled Surface component is now a lot more complete, and allows to use a polycurve and extraction points to generate a toolpath for wirecutting.

Permalink to Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays!

by Robots in Architecture|on December 22, 2011 |in Robots in Architecture

We wish you all Happy Holidays!
See you in 2012!

Sigrid & Johannes

Permalink to KUKA|prc: Update

KUKA|prc: Update

by Robots in Architecture|on December 11, 2011 |in Robots in Architecture

We’ve uploaded a new version of KUKA|prc, this is a bugfix release which fixes several problems reported by our members and was tested with the most up-to-date version of Grasshopper. Most importantly, it is no longer necessary to save settings to an external XML file – instead, the settings are embedded into the Grasshopper definition. Just click “Apply Settings” in the GUI and they are saved. Please note that this update breaks compatibility. If you open an existing GH file that contains a Grasshopper component, you will get an IO error and the KUKA|prc component will have disappeared. Just put it in again and re-connect it, and you’re good to go.

Members of the Association for Robots in Architecture are already using the KUKA|prc component for multi-100.000€ projects – more details coming soon.

Download the component from here or from Food4Rhino

Permalink to Good news!

Good news!

by Robots in Architecture|on December 4, 2011 |in Robots in Architecture

Good news, everyone! Exciting things are happening, the Association for Robots in Architecture has just received a very welcome grant from the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) to explore the robotic fabrication of an innovative building material, developed by an ambitious Austrian start-up company.

We’re also glad to announce that, as we already hinted a few days ago, Thibault Schwartz – developer of the HAL plugin for Grasshopper, has joined the Association of Robots in Architecture as a developing member. While we will keep on doing our “own stuff”, we and Thibault share a common vision of the use of robots in architecture. It is our strong belief that the sharing of knowledge is the way to go, so both KUKA|prc and HAL will profit from this partnership.

Preparations for the first conference on robots in architecture, art, and design – Rob|Arch 2012 – to be held in December 2012, are also well under way – we’ll have workshops ranging from agile 7-axis lightweight robots to heavy-duty concrete (!) milling robots, with several more robots in between. The topics and dates will be announced with the call for papers in mid-January – but be assured that with partners such as the University of Stuttgart, TU Graz, ETH Zurich, and TU Wien it’s going to be exciting!

Permalink to HAL – A Grasshopper plugin for ABB robots

HAL – A Grasshopper plugin for ABB robots

by Robots in Architecture|on December 2, 2011 |in Robots in Architecture

We’re proud to announce that Thibault Schwartz, developing member of the Association for Robots in Architecture, has recently published his HAL plugin for programming ABB robots out of Grasshopper. We got a sneak peak at his software when he visited us a few weeks ago and were really impressed, so check it out if you’ve got an ABB standing around!

You can download it from Thibault’s homepage

Permalink to Robotic Punching – Revisited

Robotic Punching – Revisited

by Robots in Architecture|on October 29, 2011 |in Robots in Architecture

In the past week, we got quite a few questions regarding the just-released KUKA|prc plugin. To demonstrate the use of KUKA|prc in a small parametric project, we’ve updated the Robotic Punching tutorial, known from our CAAD-Futures 2011 workshop.

You can download the Rhino, Grasshopper and KUKA|prc configuration-XML files as one ZIP file.

DOWNLOAD Robotic Punching with KUKA|prc

The PDF with a step-by-step guide of the initial parametric model is still available for download in the CAAD-Futures post.

KUKA|prc

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