Automated robotics agents for assembly-aware design of shells

Form-finding processes for shell structures generates geometric designs which are potentially structurally stable once fully constructed without external supports. The form-found solutions are provided as is, and for segmented shell structures a suitable assembly sequence is not guaranteed to be locally stable at each stage. Assembly problems have been studied geometrically in the field of shell construction. But, as the use of robotics in construction environments is set to increase over the coming decade, then the application of robotics to construction of shell structures requires the study of assembly sequences and stability when robotic arms are adopted. By applying assembly concepts of Non-Directional Blocking Graphs and robot workspace analysis to results of form-finding in parametric design environments, this work presents early-stage research into augmenting the shell design process with assembly feasibility metrics. A workflow is demonstrated for applying robotic workspace data to shell design and generating an assembly plan, with initial robot planning proposed.