Robotic Fabrication Assistant : Alexandre Dubor Research Line Directors: Claudia Pasquero and Marco Poletto The robotic behaviour is therefore translated into a 3D robotic light painting. Such configuration allowed capturing the ephemeral lighting traces left by the robotic arm movements. A camera was positioned in front of the robot and its exposure tuned to the particular lighting conditions and the length in time of the tool path. The tool mounted on the robot contained 1 fixed LED light and 2 or 4 blinking ones the blinking was also controlled via Grasshopper and related to the robotic arm path. A video simulation with the virtual robot in Grasshopper was performed by each student to understand the behaviour of the machine along the path and amend eventual errors the video would allow also the testing of multiple path parameters and robot behavioural options.
Each group did draw a series of parametric lines that would become the tool paths for the robot. The robot was controlled by each student via Grasshopper, through the use of the KUKA | Krc plug-in (from association for robots in architecture) for Grasshopper and Rhino. Our first experimental set up was the following: Since 6-axis machines such as the one in the IAAC Fab Lab are directly inherited from the mass production of cars and other industrial products, the first focus of our design research has been devoted to developing alternative protocols of robotic fabrication that would afford a more direct interaction between machine and designer, as well as machine and the surrounding environment these protocols will lead to the engineering of mass customized productions. The first design assignment for the students of the Master in Advanced Architecture 2013 was to develop and test communication protocols to control and manipulate the behaviour of a large industrial robot. Machinic Conversations I: Hacking an industrial 6axis robot The IUCN Red List identifies three of the species as critically endangered.Ĭlick the following link if you would like to hear about the project. People grind up the horns and then consume them believing the dust has therapeutic properties. The horns are made of keratin, the same type of protein that makes up hair and fingernails. Both African species and the Sumatran rhinoceros have two horns, while the Indian and Javan rhinoceros have a single horn. By weight, rhino horns cost as much as gold on the black market.
East Asia, specifically Vietnam, is the largest market for rhino horns. Rhinoceros are killed by humans for their horns, which are bought and sold on the black market, and which are used by some cultures for ornamental or traditional medicinal purposes. Unlike other perissodactyls, the two African species of rhinoceros lack teeth at the front of their mouths, relying instead on their lips to pluck food. They generally eat leafy material, although their ability to ferment food in their hindgut allows them to subsist on more fibrous plant matter, if necessary. Members of the rhinoceros family are characterized by their large size (they are some of the largest remaining megafauna, with all of the species able to reach one tonne or more in weight) as well as by an herbivorous diet a thick protective skin, 1.5–5 cm thick, formed from layers of collagen positioned in a lattice structure relatively small brains for mammals this size (400–600 g) and a large horn. Two of these extant species are native to Africa and three to Southern Asia. A rhinoceros is one of any five extant species of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae, as well as any of the numerous extinct species.