Gantry-Based Automated Building Assembly: Replicating the LOMs Kinematic Simulations

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Elizabeth Andrzejewski

Marywood University, USA

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The Location Orientation Manipulator, LOM, a singular architecture machine reminiscent of the human body, was developed by Konrad Wachsmann with PhD students John Bollinger and Xavier Mendoza at USC in 1971. The machine was specifically designed to study the kinematics of building assembly[1]. Shortly after the completion of the study the LOM was destroyed. A close re-examination/re-build of the LOM based on archival documentation has informed the development of a gantry-based Automated Building Machine (ABM), an attempt at an accessible approach to automated building made in contrast to the industrial robotic arm which currently dominates studies in automated building.

The ABMs capabilities were tested by replicating and studying two unique kinematic tests performed by the LOM, the Eight Block Assembly Sequence and the Hypothetical Assembly program. While the Eight Block Assembly Sequence demonstrated a stacking of block elements, the Hypothetical Assembly Program challenged both machines to place diagonal elements within a cube frame. This paper compares the kinematics of both machines preforming these geometric sequences using digital and analog simulation methods. The study of these assembly sequences contributed to an in-depth study of the LOM, the development of the ABM, and the authors’ definition of the building assembly process through elements, initial states, initial orientation states, sequence, paths, key states, intermediate transition states, obstacles, final states, and final orientation states.

 

[1] Bollinger J. and Mendoza X. Location Orientation Manipulator: A Physical Tool for the Study of Kinematics of Assembly of Building Structures. PhD dissertation, University of Southern California. 1971.