Ramus by DumoLab Research (DLR) is a multi-discipline, multi-year, and multi-project research setting the the foundation for the development of large-scale, ambient conditions additively manufactured, and biodegradable cellulose-based biomaterial composites able to mediate their structural capacity from micro to macroscale.
RAMUS advances design and fabrication of ecological benign wood biomass composites with precise material distribution, programmed hierarchical behavior, efficient material use, minimum waste, and non-toxic processing and end-of-life. Inspired by vernacular binders from blood, pitch, beans, or milk, Ramus, a Latin term meaning “branch”, looks at abundant and regenerative natural adhesives to bind wood biomass particles from organic byproducts. This research challenges industrial era wood composites that include petrochemical binders with low cost, rapid curing, and strength advantages, but with high human and ecological health risks. Rationalizing predictable mechanical properties and fabricability of biopolymer blends from natural resources is discussed here through design of microscale chemistry-dependent structure, mesoscale manufactured property distribution, and macroscale functionally graded performance in large, printed constructs. The work hints at a future where complex behavior structures are made from ecologically benign materials and low energy manufacturing, while reducing the need for assembly of multiple single-function parts
Publications:
Ramus-0 for VAMO was shown as an application for flexible paneling at the Venice Biennale 2025, Corderie of the Arsenale, Venice, IT, in collaboration with MIT and ETH and will tour EU before it is left to decompose in a Danish forest.
Our fundamental materials article was published as “RAMUS: Printable, Mechanically‐Tunable and Biodegradable Cellulose‐Mediated Composites.” Mogas‐Soldevila, Laia, Shivani Chawla, Behzad Modanloo, Shravan Pradeep, Abigail Weinstein, and Victor Li. (2025). Advanced Materials Interfaces, October 16, e00513. https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/admi.202500513
Application to large scale structural paneling is discussed at ACADIA 2025 by Qin, Bowen, Behzad Modanloo, Xia Luo, and Laia Mogas-Soldevila. 2025. “From Nature-Inspired Design to Bio-Based Production: An Optimized Computational Workflow for Additive Manufacturing of Bio-Composite Surface-Filling Patterns.” ACADIA Conference, Miami FL. Computing for Resilience. November 6.
Team: Laia Mogas-Soldevila (Penn DumoLab Director), Shivani Chawla (Undergraduate Researcher, Materials Science'24), Behzad Modanloo( PhD Student, Arch'27), Shravan Pradeep (Postdoctoral Associate, Penn Soft Earth Dynamics Lab & Complex Fluids Lab), Abigail Weinstein (Undergraduate Researcher, Design'24), Victor Li (Undergraduate Researcher, English & Architecture'24).
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