Creative Robotics in Architecture
A new wave of robotics innovation is revolutionizing architecture and construction
Robots today serve as mechanized interfaces between the digital and the physical worlds, turning data into action. They’ve played important roles in manufacturing for decades, but a new wave of robotics innovation focuses on uses in architecture and construction. From large-scale additive concrete manufacturing to agile fabrication systems using robotic arms, these advances can change how and what we build, and may eventually empower us to reinvent conventional construction processes entirely. Johannes Braumann, co-founder of the Association for Robots in Architecture and a professor of robotics at the University of Linz in Austria, shares his insight on the inherent constraints and challenges for these systems and the different ways those challenges can be solved. He suggests that successful applications will blend the reduced complexity that comes from using off-the-shelf and generic technologies like robotic arms with the value of unique or domain-specific hardware and digital systems. Ultimately, the goal is less to automate menial tasks, as happened in manufacturing, and more to empower and support skilled workers in construction.
About the speaker
Johannes Braumann is a co-founder of the Association for Robots in Architecture and a professor of Creative Robotics at the University of Linz in Austria. Braumann is the lead developer of KUKA|prc, a solution for controlling and simulating industrial robots using visual programming environments. It is now being used in a variety of industries.
Related learning
Learn more about the possibilities for robotics and automation in construction with these AU resources.
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