Juan Dong - Abstract - 20150128

Free standing shell built with fabric using industrial robot

Juan Dong
juadon@umich.edu

Folds in fabric that create structure have been researched by craftsman since long time ago. In that time, folds were more operated with manual processes. Every time we crush a piece of paper and throw it on the ground, the paper takes on a unique geometry that cannot be repeated a second time. It means that with the same procedure of production, the outcome can be different. And this unrepeatable attribute makes up the gap between what one can form manually and what one anticipates the form to be. Industrial robot has the advantage of precisely control over materials attached to it, in which way it controls the outcome to a certain precision.

This research focuses on the control of industrial robots in forming the folds of fabric, and on aggregating the fabric units into a double curved surface that builds on its own weight. By setting the moving path of the robot arms, the fabric will be held and change its form according to tension, compression, torsion and gratitude that has be attached to it. With each piece of fabric getting on its form and keeping the form by using fabric stiffening coating, the pieces of the fabric can be aggregated as a big piece of double curved surfaces under the assembly logics and algorithm preset be the computer simulation process.

Fabric is a material without bearing ability. Through the stiffening process and folds formed in the fabric, the fabric can gain an imbedded structure which allows the possibility of building each piece in a way that when the pieces are aggregated together, they can sustain themselves. It must be understood that the double curved surface will has its own range of success. Because of the special quality of flexibility for the fabric, there will be some forms for the double curved surface to fail in standing on themselves, but different forms would be tested to see which way the big piece of double curved surface will be able to stand on itself better.