The Flexing Room (2020)
article⁄The Flexing Room (2020)
abstract⁄Robotics has been largely confined to the object category with fewer examples at the scale of buildings. Robotic buildings present unique challenges in communicating intent to the enclosed user. Precedent work in architectural robotics explored the performative dimension, the playful and interactive qualities, and the cognitive challenges of AI systems interacting with people in architecture. The Flexing Room robotic skeleton was installed at MIT at its full designed height for the first time and tested for two weeks in the summer of 2019. The approximately 13foottall structure is comprised of 36 pneumatic actuators and an active bend fiberglass structure. The full height allowed for a wide range of postures the structure could take. Acoustic monitoring through Piezo pickup mics was added that allowed for basic rhythmic responses of the structure to people tapping or otherwise triggering the vibration sensors. Data streams were collected synchronously from Kinect skeleton tracking, piezo pickup mics, camera streams, and posture data. The emphasis in this test period was first to establish reliable hardware operations at full scale and second to record correlated data streams of the sensors installed in the structure together with the actuation triggers and the human poses of the inhabitant. The fullscale installation of hardware was successful and proved the feasibility of the structural and actuation approach previously tested on a onelevel setup. The range of postures was increased and more transparent for the occupant. The perception of the structure as space was also improved as the system reached regular ceiling height and formed a clearer architectural scale enclosure. The ambition of communicating through architectural postures has not been achieved yet, but promising directions emerged from the test and data collection
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| Year |
2020 |
| Authors |
Kilian, Axel. |
| Issue |
ACADIA 2020: Distributed Proximities / Volume II: Projects |
| Pages |
142-147 |
| Library link |
N/A |
| Entry filename |
flexing-room |
