Date: 2020
Category: Robotics (Master’s Thesis)
Location: Pennsylvania/ Penn State
Advisor: Benay Gursoy Committee: Jose Pinto Duarte, Felecia Davis, Tom Lauermann, Ardavan Bidgoli

Robotic Sketching

Sketching is one of the most basic but influential steps in the early architectural design process. Architects use sketches not only to represent their ideas but also to generate new ones. The vague and fuzzy nature of sketches and the uncertainties of the sketching process give architects opportunities to see unexpected elements in their own design process, which in return help them to generate new ideas (Lawson, 2006).

In this project, I argue that designers can take advantage of digital fabrication tools to get more creative. Fabrication tools are usually being used to materialize a fixed design. What if we use them to come up with new design ideas?
This thesis develops a workflow in which digital fabrication tools, specifically Robotic arms, are becoming sketching tools. The goal is to sketch using the emerging effects of material behavior in the process of making to inform the design itself.
Robotic 3d printing with clay is presented as a showcase of this workflow in this thesis.