AWARD YEAR
2019
CATEGORY
Work
GOALS
Industry, Innovation & Infrastructure
KEYWORDS
robotic manufacturing, swarmbots, biomimicry
COUNTRY
United States of America
DESIGNED BY
Markus Kayser, MIT’s Mediated Matter Group
WEBSITE
https://www.fastcompany.com/90242694/these-adorable-robots-work-together-to-build-alien-structures
Fiberbots
Swarm bots build alien structures - and re-vision the future of architecture
Fiberbots are small robots that work as a group to wind fiberglass filament into large structures, from buildings to art installations. These digital agents can be paired to work together as a team in order to build complicated, organically shaped three-dimensional structures as high as 15 feet tall. Each Fiberbot consists of a winding arm and a motorized base. It is connected to a tank on the ground by a tube, which contains fiber and resin, which the winding arm sucks to mix it in its nozzle, creating a filament that gets spun by the arm around the entire Fiberbot’s body. Once it’s done building this small segment around itself, the robot turns an ultra-violet light that cooks the fiberglass filament in place, solidifying it.
Each of the bots is autonomous and fully aware of the others’ positions–they communicate using Wi-Fi–which ensures they don’t collide. Re-visioning the future of architecture, the bots could already be used in extreme situations to build bridges etc.