Collaborative Construction: Human and Robotic Collaboration Enabling the Fabrication and Assembly of a Filament-Wound Structure

Abstract

In this paper, we describe an interdisciplinary project and live-exhibit that investigated whether untrained humans and robots could work together collaboratively towards the common goal of building a large-scale structure composed out of robotically fabricated modules using a filament winding process. We describe the fabrication system and exhibition setup, including a custom end effector and tension control mechanism, as well as a collaborative fabrication process in which instructions delivered via wearable devices enable the trade-off of production and assembly tasks between human and robot. We describe the necessary robotic developments that facilitated a live fabrication process, including a generic robot inverse kinematic solver engine for non-spherical wrist robots, and wireless network communication connecting hardware and software. In addition, we discuss computational strategies for the fiber syntax generation and robotic motion planning which mitigated constraints such as reachability, axis limitations, and collisions, and ensured predictable and therefore safe motion in a live exhibition setting. We discuss the larger implications of this project as a case study for handling deviations due to non-standardized materials or human error, as well as a means to reconsider the fundamental separation of human and robotic tasks in a production workflow. Most significantly, the project exemplifies a hybrid domain of human and robot collaboration in which coordination and communication between robots, people, and devices can enhance the integration of robotic processes and computational control into the characteristic processes of construction.