Rob|Arch 2014 – Robotic Fabrication for Architecture, Art, and Design
Workshops: 14.-16.05.2014 / Conference: 17.-18.05.2014
Conference Chair: Wes Mcgee and Monica Ponce de Leon / University of Michigan

ROB|ARCH has been initiated by the Association for Robots in Architecture as a new conference series on the use of robotic fabrication in architecture, art, and design, closely linking industry with cutting-edge research institutions. In December 2012 the conference was hosted by its founders in Vienna, Austria. In 2014 the conference travels to North America, hosted by the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning.

Continuing with the previous theme of international collaboration, the conference seeks to bring together artists, designers, fabricators, and industry leaders for the purpose of advancing the discourse surrounding robotic fabrication. Following on the success of ROB|ARCH 2012, the conference will again present a series of workshops held at select research institutions on the east coast of the United States, aimed at exposing the advanced capabilities of applied robotic research. Following the workshops, the conference will span two days at the University of Michigan Campus in Ann Arbor, Michigan, about an hour outside of Detroit, the origin of robotics in North America. The internationally renowned publishing house Springer Wien/New York will publish and market the proceedings of the conference worldwide.

For the 2014 event, we are extending a call for workshop proposals. See call.robarch2014.org for more information.

Schedule
15.4.2013 1st Call for Workshops
15.5.2013 2nd Call for Workshops
15.6.2013 Workshop Submission Deadline
01.7.2013 Workshop Notification

Dear Rob|Arch2012 participants, authors, co-chairs and sponsors,

We hope that you had relaxing holidays and a good start into the New Year!
Rob|Arch 2012 was a great success and we thank you for your positive feedback and the good wishes for the future events. From what we have heard, Rob|Arch not only provided great inspiration, but also lead to quite a few new collaborations and projects within the community.
We have uploaded nearly 15mins of workshop videos at Vimeo and 360 photos both on Facebook and the conference homepage.
The video submissions and presentations will follow soon – we are still post-processing the huge data volume.
We would like to thank nevv.org for their support, our photographers Eugen, Raimund and Marko for a good documentation, and all people involved in the conference workshops for their hard work.

Finally, we want to introduce the new ROBARCH list, inspired by lists such as ECAADE and CAADRIA, which are of great use to the community. The new ROBARCH list will link together architects, artists, designers, and engineers involved in robotic fabrication and promote new events, posts interesting job openings etc. The first official ROBARCH eMail will go out soon, please let us know if you have anything to announce!

Have fun with the first part of the online RobArch2012 documentation and thank you all for having been part of RobArch2012!

With kind regards from Vienna!
Sigrid & Johannes

Robots in Architecture is on the road again with workshops in:
January 17-19 Istanbul, Turkey
January 21-24 Trier, Germany
April 25-28 Master I Architettura I Digitale I Iuav, Venice, Italy
July 1-5 CAADFUTURES, Tongji University, Shanghai China
Summer 2013: Robots in Architecture goes Down Under in Australia

We have extended the video submission deadline by one week, to 27.11.2012. Please upload your submissions via videosubmission.robarch2012.org. See here for more details!

We’re glad to announce that the final batch of robots has arrived in Vienna, three Staeubli TX90 robots, ranging from normal size to the XL variant, which will be used for the SciArc workshop at Rob|Arch. The ABB IRB 120 for Thibault Schwartz’ workshop already arrived a while ago. The Association’s KR16-2 aren’t on workshop duty, but will exhibited at the conference as well. While the workshops in Vienna are nearly fully booked out, there are still some places left e.g. for Graz, which is connected to Vienna by a direct 2.5h train connection.

At the upcoming Rob|Arch 2012 conference, 8 universities are organizing robot workshops and 18 papers will be presented, alongside cutting edge developments of industry partners. As even a five-day event cannot cover the whole scope of robotic fabrication in architecture, art, and design, the Association for Robots in Architecture invites research institutions and companies, as well as individual artists, architects, designers, engineers, researchers, and students to submit video presentations of their “robotic” work to the Rob|Arch 2012 conference. The video clips should showcase new developments and innovative projects that are relevant to the conference topic of robotic fabrication in architecture, art, and design.
All video presentations that get approved by a jury of experts will be shown at the conference/exhibition to the Rob|Arch 2012 attendees, among them CEOs of major robot companies as well as industry partners and internationally recognized researchers, architects, and artists. Furthermore, they will be published on the Rob|Arch conference homepage, www.robarch2012.org, to a wide internet audience.
To submit a clip, please go to http://videosubmission.robarch2012.org and click on Make Submission. The Submission page contains detailed instructions regarding the required video format.

Submission Deadline:

EXTENDED to 27.11.2012

Rob|Arch 2012 is the first international conference on robotic fabrication in architecture, art, and design. From December 14th to 16th, eight parallel robot-workshops led by internationally recognised specialists from institutions such as the University of Stuttgart, TU Delft, ETH Zurich, TU Graz, SciArc, University of Michigan, Harvard, and TU Vienna will take place at four locations distributed throughout Europe, immersing participants to cutting-edge robotic research.
The results of the workshops as well as research projects, chosen by the scientific committee, will be presented and discussed at the conference from December 17th to 18th. Keynote lecturers Fabio Gramazio and Matthias Kohler from ETH Zurich, Achim Menges from the University of Stuttgart, and artists Clemens Neugebauer and Martin Kölldorfer will show different approaches how robots can be used in the creative industry.

The production of the conference workshop documentary and the live broadcasting at the RobArch-Pavilion will be performed by NEVV.ORG digital media.

Please register for the conference at http://registration.robarch2012.org . The early registration discounts is extended! If you have any questions, contact the conference chair at chair@robarch2012.org

We are pleased to announce the final Rob|Arch 2012 workshop: Led by Martin Bechthold and Nathan King, Harvard GSD will host a robot workshop at TU Graz. The topic of their workshop is “Robotic Casting”. Like all other workshops, the Harvard GSD workshop will take place from 14th to 16th of December. Participants will also have the chance to register for the free ABB-sponsored RobotStudio pre-workshop on the 13th.

The workshop explores novel approaches to serially customized casting processes enabled through the strategic deployment of three 6-axis robotic manipulators. Combining bottom up and top down design approaches, the workshop includes the design and fabrication of robotic molds geared towards the production of customizable structural components. The workshop production process takes full advantage of the robots ability to precisely choreograph the mold position in space and time. The production will generate a controlled yet infinitely variable family of structural modules that combine into a larger physical prototype.

Furthermore, the ETH Zurich & ROB Technology have informed us that their workshop will use the mobile ROB unit – a KUKA robotic arm mounted on a shipping container – that was used for projects such as the Pike Loop. See the video of ROB in action below:

You can register for the conference and workshops at registration.robarch2012.org

ROB|ARCH has been initiated by the Association for Robots in Architecture as a new conference series on the use of robotic fabrication in architecture, art, and design, closely linking industry with cutting-edge research institutions.

In addition to the previously announced seven workshops, hosted by TU Delft, University of Michigan, University of Stuttgart, TU Graz, ETH Zurich, TU Vienna, Hal, and the Association for Robots in Architecture at four locations throughout Europe, SciArc is joining the Rob|Arch 2012 conference and will be offering another robot workshop. Staeubli is providing three industrial robots for the workshop, which is going to take place alongside three other robot workshops at TU Vienna’s Arsenal location.

The registration for the Rob|Arch 2012 conference is now open at registration.robarch2012.org

Thanks to the generous support of our main sponsor KUKA, our sponsors ABB, Schunk, as well as our workshop sponsors Staeubli, Zeman, SuperTex and Euchner, we can offer an reduced early-registration fee of 50% for professionals and even 70% for students.

499€ – early Regular registration: One robot workshop (to be selected in the registration form), conference admission, conference dinner, and printed Springer proceedings.

299€ – early Student registration: One robot workshop (to be selected in the registration form), conference admission and conference dinner. Printed Springer proceedings are available at a reduced price.

The early registration prices are valid until October 1st, workshop spaces are limited to allow every participant plenty of time with the robots. At the moment, conference-only registration is not available; we encourage all participants of the conference to attend a robot workshop.

Due to the much higher than expected amount of submitted abstracts, the full paper submission will use the well-established OpenConf system to facilitate the review process. Full papers, using the provided template at www.robarch2012.org/submission, can be submitted until the 16th of July. Everyone is eligible to submit papers, though authors who previously submitted abstracts do have the advantage of having received valuable feedback from the reviewers.

The KUKA Young Potential Award, kindly funded by KUKA, will cover travel expenses and workshop/conference admission fees of up to 2000€ for the author of the best scientific paper at Rob|Arch 2012. All paper authors under 35 years automatically qualify for the award. Finalists are selected by the scientific committee and the winner is announced at the conference in Vienna.

Good Luck!