AirTied: Automatic Personal Fabrication of Truss Structures
Lukas Rambold, Róbert Kovács, Conrad Lempert, Muhammad Abdullah, Helena Lendowski, Lukas Fritzsche, Martin Taraz, Patrick Baudisch
Abstract
We present AirTied, a device that fabricates truss structures in a fully automatic fashion. AirTied achieves this by unrolling a 20cm-wide inflatable plastic tube and tying nodes into it. AirTied creates nodes by holding onto a segment of tube, stacking additional tube segments on top of it, tying them up, and releasing the result. The resulting structures are material-efficient and light as well as sturdy, as we demonstrate by creating a 6m-tower. Unlike the prior art, AirTied requires no scaffolding and no building blocks, bringing automated truss construction into the reach of personal fabrication.
Topics & Concepts
InflatableTrussTyingFabricationTube (container)TowerStackingComputer scienceRopeEngineering drawingStructural engineeringMechanical engineeringEngineeringPhysicsOperating systemMedicinePathologyAlternative medicineNuclear magnetic resonanceModular Robots and Swarm IntelligenceInnovations in Concrete and Construction MaterialsInteractive and Immersive Displays