Robosense 3.0: CERA III Adaptive Robotic Clay Printing

Abstract

This article presents a streamlined design pipeline that emphasizes designer agency and human–robot collaboration within robotic clay additive manufacturing processes. We introduce novel hardware and software to produce high-resolution ceramic architectural components at scale. 3D printing of clay allows for increased geometric complexity, facilitating a design approach whereby materials are expensive but form is cheap. This technology shows transformative potential for the architectural design and construction industries, allowing for greater freedom in form generation and enhanced functional efficiency. In addition, extrusion-based additive manufacturing of clay—a historically significant architectural material with environmental benefits—shows promise in revitalizing and redefining this material in both ornamental and structural applications. However, several critical challenges remain in the integration of clay extrusion into architecture and construction. Key among these is the trade-off between scale and resolution and the limited avenues for designer input and intervention during production. This article aims to address these challenges by presenting integrated workflows that detail a two-step mechanical extrusion assembly and associated software packages for motor calibration. Furthermore, we present software that enables real-time designer-led toolpath adaptation. The proposed extruder system builds a two-step extruder assembly with decoupled control of the extrusion and feeding mechanisms, with precise mathematical calibration of each to expand the achievable range of scales and resolution in printed prototypes. In addition, we challenge the pursuit of fully automated robotic construction by highlighting opportunities for real-time designer input during production, thereby increasing designer agency in all phases of design. As a result of our integrative research, we describe a workflow for developing modularized extrusion assemblies for robotically controlled additive manufacturing. In addition, we release two Grasshopper components, Pulse Control and DynPath, that achieve motor calibration in modulated clay assemblies and real-time motion intervention during fabrication, respectively. Finally, we present printed assembly prototypes and their design possibilities in an integrative framework.