According to New Atlas, if you build a complex wooden structure by hand, it is quite difficult to lift heavy wooden parts, put them together precisely, and then maintain their arrangement when glued. That's why a Swiss team is using robots to do most of the work.
This outdoor structure is known as the "Semiramis", which is said to be the name of the queen who commissioned the construction of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The researchers plan to call it 22.5 meters (73.8 feet) high and include five wood-shelled capsules filled with plants, supported by eight steel columns. It will be located in a technical park in the Swiss town of Zug.
Semiramis was designed by Zurich-based Miller-Illian Landscape Architects and Swiss timber architecture firm Timbatec. Its multi-sided cabin is being built in the Robotics Manufacturing Laboratory at ETH Zurich. There, four robotic arms work together to select and lift the pre-cut plywood, placing them side by side in the desired configuration and then fixing them in place, while workers bond them together using cast resin.
This is a tough job, as each pod consists of 51 to 88 such panels. A special control algorithm ensures that arms do not collide with each other when placing the pods together.
The team also used custom software during the design process, which automatically adjusts the entire geometry of each pod if a point is moved on the computer model of each pod. The program also shows how different design choices will affect factors such as irrigation, manufacturing processes, and the load-bearing capacity of the pod.
The team plans to ask Semiramis to be completed and fully planted next spring. The assembly process of the robot can be seen in the video below.
Professor Matthias Kohler of ETH Zurich said: "Semiramis has been a beacon project for architectural research, bringing together people inside and outside ETH and driving current key research topics such as interactive architectural design and digital fabrication. ”