Robotics Building Climate-Optimized With Robots

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When constructing a climate-optimal wall, the angle alignment of individual bricks is crucial. The calculations for this come from a digital design configurator—and in the future, a robot will assist craftsmen with the precise placement of the bricks.

When Julia Fleckenstein, a researcher at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), builds a wall together with apprentices from the Munich Ebersberg Construction Guild, a robot is always present. Otherwise, the outer layer of the brick wall could not be constructed at all. Of the 1,700 bricks installed there, more than 200 are not exactly aligned on top of each other. "They turn at different angles out of the wall," says the architect from the Chair of Digital Fabrication at TUM. The reason for this: the wall is climate-optimized. A digital design configurator knows how shaded or sunny the location is where the wall of a house is to be built and calculates the exact climate-optimized position of individual bricks.

The robot has the digital twin of the wall stored. The logic of robotic assembly is thus directly integrated into the construction process. "The robot is like a new colleague," says Fleckenstein. The robotic arm is equipped with a gripper and mounted on a mobile base that can move left and right as needed. This allows it to reach any desired spot on the approximately 4 by 8 feet 2 inches wall.

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The robot was developed at TUM to work directly on construction sites as part of a team with humans. "It's a sensible way to build," says Markus Bruckner, trainer for masons and plasterers at the Construction Guild: "The robot provides precision where humans reach their limits." Instead of replacing craftsmen and craftswomen, it complements their skills. Three of Bruckner's apprentices worked on the wall. "It was very unusual at first when a robotic arm suddenly joined in," says masonry apprentice Dragan Stanojevic, who will complete his training next year: "Now, I can easily imagine it."

Behind the project Climate Active Envelopes, funded by the Bavarian Transformation and Research Foundation, is also the idea of simplifying construction, for example by exclusively using bricks. Instead of complex wall structures with various materials, the apprentices use only bricks, laid in several layers. "The wall is now 'four heads deep,'" explains Bruckner—making it a total of 1 foot 10 inches. That's 8 to 10 inches more than usual. "Weather-resistant clinker bricks or impregnated bricks are used on the outside, while insulation bricks should be used on the inside, here initially simulated with perforated bricks," says Fleckenstein. Masonry master and building technician Bruckner adds, "Bricks enable a simple and sustainable construction method—and with monomaterial constructions, we are also considering easier deconstruction and reusability."

With Robots on the Construction Site of the Future

"The workshop clearly shows that collaborative robotics does not replace craftsmanship but rather enhances it in a targeted way," says Kathrin Dörfer, Professor of Digital Fabrication at TUM, who initiated the workshop together with Laura Lammel, Master Craftsman of the Munich-Ebersberg Construction Guild. "It is precisely the interplay of digital planning, robotic execution, and artisanal finesse that creates new possibilities in the construction process." For the apprentices, this opens up a perspective of a future-proof craft that is not displaced but strengthened by new technologies.

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