2026-09-18T20:15:01Zhttps://dspace.mit.edu/server/oai/requestoai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/1278742021-07-05T14:03:20Zcom_1721.1_7582com_1721.1_7581col_1721.1_131023
Axel Kilian and Lawrence Sass.
Mason, Molly,S.M.Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture
2020-10-08T21:28:15Z
2020-10-08T21:28:15Z
2020
2020
https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/127874
1196831431
Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture, May, 2020
Cataloged from the official PDF of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 60-62).
Within the contemporary practice of architecture, what we design determines how we make it. Digital fabrication provides designers the opportunity to directly link digital models with CNC equipment such as robotics. While beneficial this direct link eliminates the ability for a craftsperson to adjust forms on-site using their knowledge of material and process. To reintroduce the flexibility of the crafts process and take advantage of material and tool capabilities, it is necessary to embed this craft knowledge into the design model itself in a series of craft decisions. Such craft decisions include both the "live" choices made while making, which pull from past experiences, material behavior, and tacit knowledge, and the choice of how one formalizes descriptions of making. The act of making consists of both how material is shaped into parts and how these parts come together to participate as a whole.
However, fifteen years of industrial robotic research has examined the acts of fabrication and assembly separately. This does not consider bidirectional relationship between part formation and assembly where customized parts require new modes of assembly and assembly requires certain formal part characteristics for handling. In this thesis, I propose the integration of robotic fabrication and assembly constraints into the design process to use as drivers for form-finding. The framework for this is created through codifying material processes and assembly logics into making verbs which act as descriptions of tools, material, and movement. Through the combination of multiple verbs, the designer is able to explore formal design spaces which are informed by fabrication and assembly constraints. The design of parts is kept "live" during the process of making, capable of being altered based on constraints of material process and assembly.
The resultant workflows propose an active dialogue between design, fabrication, and assembly where the act of making is described through actions rather than explicit geometrical models.
by Molly Mason.
S.M.
S.M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture
64 pages
eng
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MIT theses may be protected by copyright. Please reuse MIT thesis content according to the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy, which is available through the URL provided.
http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582
Architecture.
Crafting decisions : integrating design, fabrication, and assembly for six-axis robotic arms
Integrating design, fabrication, and assembly for six-axis robotic arms
Thesis
application/pdf
2020-10-08T21:28:13Z
Publication
Master
Arch
unknown
unknown
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