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About

Romana Rust is a leading researcher at the intersection of digital fabrication, architectural robotics, and advanced manufacturing. Her work fundamentally reimagines how building components are designed and produced, pioneering novel robotic processes that bridge the gap between computational design and physical construction. A central contribution is the development of point-by-point wire and arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) for structural steel, a technique that precisely deposits high-strength material and, when combined with robotic arms and sensing, functions as an efficient joining method for custom components. This work, published in 2021, has garnered 86 citations. Rust also introduced "Spatial Wire Cutting," a multi-robotic technique for efficiently producing non-ruled, geometrically complex architectural components. Beyond structural applications, she explores artistic fabrication with "RobotSculptor," an interactive system enabling artist-directed robotic sculpting of clay. Her research consistently demonstrates how computational path planning and cooperative robotics can unlock new design freedoms, making bespoke, structurally-sound metal frames and sculptural forms feasible. With a publication record spanning from 2013 to 2021, Rust’s work at ETH Zurich’s Gramazio Kohler Research is foundational for the next generation of robotically-assembled spatial structures.