Material Agencies: Robotics & Design Lab I

The Fall Material Agencies course consists of two half-semester design-fabrication sections, supported by two aligned Core Technical Seminars of half-semester length each. Students will typically work in pairs. Design discourse and subject matter for these sections varies, but is intimately related to a robotic fabrication research such as:

Example Section: Sculptured Matter investigates the sculptural and manufacturing possibilities of robot hot-wire cutting. An extension of mathematical and artist driven surface production will be explored that leverages robot motion and geometry in order to produce exemplary robotically fabricated works.

Example Section: Manipulative Matter explores robot manipulation-based manufacture (Eg. Sheet-metal folding) of prototypical building/sculptural parts. Sheet-metal folding requires computational modelling for geometric and fabrication rationalization in order to ensure designs can be realized by manipulating sheet material without it tearing.

Example Section: Woven Matter aims to unify design and production within one creative process. The course commences with the development of novel programs to control the motion of Penn’s industrial robots for robotic weaving. 3D design models will be developed in parallel to fabrication experiments and digital simulations.