Designing for Automated Construction

The majority of automated construction research and development has been bottom-up, from the construction / engineering side rather than top-down from the design end The first part of this paper is devoted to the design of a research programme which seeks to address topics related to the conceptual design of robotic systems for construction, and developing overall design principles for top-down architect / designer applications. The proposed research includes the derivation of simple shape grammars and a simulation research programme for understanding component connections and robotic manipulation, using a model robotic construction system remote controlled over the Internet. The second part presents a report of the research carried out according to the programme, and introduces an example concept automated construction system designed according to the principles derived from the investigation outlined in the first part.