Undergrads employ robotics in design and construction

Texas A&M undergraduates in several disciplines experimented with a cutting-edge approach to robotics in design and manufacturing in a spring 2019 class led by Maryam Mansoori, a [Ph.D. architecture] (http://dept.arch.tamu.edu/graduate/phd/) student.

“They learned new areas of computational design in architecture,” said Mansoori, whose students wrote code for a robotic arm in the new RELLIS [Campus Center for Infrastructural Renewal] (https://rellis.tamus.edu/applied-research-technology/facilities/cir/) lab to create scale prototypes of building panels with various levels of water porosity, and additional, automated design and building projects.

“The students’ interdisciplinary exploration of robotics and digital design is absolutely at the forefront of where architecture, engineering, and construction are heading,” said Zofia Rybkowski, associate professor of [construction science] (http://cosc.arch.tamu.edu/) . “Mansoori pushes these boundaries in her research and work and throws down a gauntlet for her students to do the same.

In the class, students from different departments such as architecture, manufacturing engineering, industrial, and mechanical engineering created designs and models at the CIR and the College of Architecture’s [Automated Fabrication and Design Lab] (https://fablab.arch.tamu.edu/) .

“Using this technology was by far one of the most interesting things I have ever done in a class,” said Tanner Hawkins, a third-year university studies major. “Our group wrote code that enabled a robot arm at the CIR’s to model a design of a scale panel of porous concrete.”

Mansoori was assisted by Mehdi Farahbakhsh, a fellow Ph.D. architecture student.

Students displayed their final projects and innovative design processes at iN. FORMED CONCRETE, an April 30, 2019 exhibit at the Langford Architecture Center.

The project was partially funded by Mark Clayton as the holder of the William Merriweather Peña Endowed Professorship in Information Management.

Richard Nira

rnira@arch.tamu.edu