Impact Printed Structures

Project Description

Impact printing is a novel robotic building method for constructing full-scale, freeform structures with a custom earth-based material. In contrast to layer-based 3D printing, this robotic construction method is based on controlled, high-velocity deposition. By depositing material at velocities up to 10 meters per second, the process can achieve interlayer bonding between multiple courses. Our low environmental impact earth-based mixture is under development and includes several components: primarily locally sourced secondary material with a low amount of mineral admixture. We have an experimental setup for producing 2-meter-tall prototypes in the Robotic Fabrication Laboratory at ETH Zurich, while we plan for integrating the same hardware setup on the HEAP autonomous excavator, developed by the Robotic Systems Lab.

In parallel, we are developing a digital design and construction strategy for realizing these structures utilizing state-of-the-art methods in computational design and sensing to enable a breakthrough at the full building scale. This research will greatly enhance sustainable and mobile robotic construction potentials and combine research and real-scale applications. It will become an unprecedented insitu robotic additive manufacturing process and pave the way to radically new approaches and innovation possibilities for the design and manufacturing of earthen structures.