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The purpose of the paper is to advance remote robotic fabrication through an iterative and pedagogical protocol for shaping architectural grounds. Advancements in autonomous robotic tools enable to reach increasingly larger scales of architectural and landscape construction and operate in remote and inaccessible sites. In parallel, the relation of architecture to its environment is significantly reconsidered, as the building industry's contribution to the environmental stress increases. In response, new practices emerge, addressing the reshaping and modulation of environments using digital tools. The context of extra-terrestrial architecture provides a ground for exploring these issues, as future practice in this domain relies on the use of remote autonomous means for repurposing local matter. As a result, the novelty in robotic construction laboratories is tied to innovation in architectural pedagogy.

This paper puts forth a pedagogical protocol and iterative framework for digital groundscaping using robotic tools. The framework is demonstrated through an intensive workshop led by the authors. To situate the discussion, digital groundscaping is linked to several conditions that characterize practice and relate to pedagogy. These conditions include the experimental dimension of knowledge in digital fabrication, the convergence of knowledge as part of the blur between the fields of architecture and landscape architecture and the bridging of heterogeneous knowledge sets (virtual and physical), which robotic fabrication on natural terrains entails.

The outcomes of the workshop indicate that iterative processes can assist in applying autonomous design protocols on remote grounds. The protocols were assessed in light of the roles of technological tools, design iterations and material agency in the robotic fabrication.

The paper concludes with observations linking the iterative protocol to new avenues in architectural pedagogy as means of advancing the capacity to digitally design, modulate and transform natural grounds.

This paper presents the applied research and design work on innovative and sustainable building products developed by an undergraduate architecture seminar course. It presents the case for innovative uses of cement-based products, while framing the proposals within a global shift toward environmentally responsive and bio-integrated materials.

The methodology utilizes a process of hybridization between digital fabrication and analog making methods that is framed within the larger design discourse and that intersects the digital design process with material know-how. The approach engages local problematics and applies advanced technology and the integration of natural behaviors to develop a rich applied design method.

Through the presented work and proposed building products, critical findings and outcomes emerge, ones that relate to the design process itself and others to the designed products.

The research presented here proposes novel approaches to cement-based building systems utilizing digital and analog fabrication, and original design solutions that engage with their context and provide active and crucial environmental performance.

Virtual voxels (3D pixels) have traditionally been used as a graphical data structure for representing 3D geometry. The purpose of this paper is to study the use of pre‐existing physical voxels as a material building‐block for layered manufacturing and present the theoretical underpinnings for a fundamentally new massively parallel additive fabrication process in which 3D matter is digital. The paper also seeks to explore the unique possibilities enabled by this paradigm.

Digital RP is a process whereby a physical 3D object is made of many digital units (voxels) arranged selectively in a 3D lattice, as opposed to analog (continuous) material commonly used in conventional rapid prototyping. The paper draws from fundamentals of 3D space‐filling shapes, large‐scale numerical simulation, and a survey of modern technology to reach conclusions on the feasibility of a fabricator for digital matter.

Design criteria and appropriate 3D voxel geometries are presented that self‐align and are suitable for rapid parallel assembly and economical manufacturing. Theory and numerical simulation predict dimensional accuracy to scale favorably as the number of voxels increases. Current technology will enable rapid parallel assembly of billions of microscale voxels.

Many novel voxel functions could be realized in the electromechanical and microfluidic domains, enabling inexpensive prototyping of complex 3D integrated systems. The paper demonstrates the feasibility of a 3D digital fabricator, but an instantiation is out of scope and left to future work.

Digital manufacturing offers the possibility of desktop fabrication of perfectly repeatable, precise, multi‐material objects with microscale accuracy.

The paper constitutes a comprehensive review of physical voxel‐based manufacturing and presents the groundwork for an emerging new field of additive manufacturing.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the microfactory model, the elements that enable it and its implications. The authors argue that microfactories reduce the risks and costs of innovation and that they can move various industries toward more local, adaptive and sustainable business ecosystems.

This conceptual paper explores several processes and practices that are relatively new; hence, it uses online secondary sources (e.g. interviews with CEOs, videos, blogs and trade magazine articles) extensively.

Given its versatility and high automation levels, the microfactory model can fill the gap between artisanal and mass production processes, boost the rate of innovation, and enable the local on-demand fabrication of customized products.

Currently, manufacturers generally need to make large investments when launching a new product, despite high uncertainty about customer acceptance, thus risking considerable losses. The microfactory model offers a safer alternative by allowing a firm to develop and fabricate new products and test their acceptance in a local market before mass producing them. Microfactories also enable the local on-demand fabrication of highly customized products.

This paper contributes to the discussion on the economic advantages and disadvantages of scale and scope, which have been insufficiently explored in the digital domain.

The purpose of this paper is to present a mask‐image‐projection‐based stereolithography (MIP‐SL) process that can combine two base materials with various concentrations and structures to produce a solid object with desired material characteristics. Stereolithography is an additive manufacturing process in which liquid photopolymer resin is cross‐linked and converted to solid. The fabrication of digital material requires frequent resin changes during the building process. The process presented in this paper attempts to address the related challenges in achieving such fabrication capability.

A two‐channel system design is presented for the multi‐material MIP‐SL process. In such a design, a coated thick film and linear motions in two axes are used to reduce the separation force of a cured layer. The material cleaning approach to thoroughly remove resin residue on built surfaces is presented for the developed process. Based on a developed testbed, experimental studies were conducted to verify the effectiveness of the presented process on digital material fabrication.

The proposed two‐channel system can reduce the separation force of a cured layer by an order of magnitude in the bottom‐up projection system. The developed two‐stage cleaning approach can effectively remove resin residue on built surfaces. Several multi‐material designs have been fabricated to highlight the capability of the developed MIP‐SL process.

A proof‐of‐concept testbed has been developed. Its building speed and accuracy can be further improved. The tests were limited to the same type of liquid resins. In addition, the removal of trapped air is a challenge in the presented process.

This paper presents a novel and a pioneering approach towards digital material fabrication based on the stereolithography process. This research contributes to the additive manufacturing development by significantly expanding the selection of base materials in fabricating solid objects with desired material characteristics.

This study aims to cover the overall gamut of rapid prototyping processes and biomaterials used for the fabrication of occlusal splints in a comprehensive manner and elucidate the characteristics of the materials, which are essential in determining their clinical efficacy when exposed to oral surroundings.

A collective analysis of published articles covering the use of rapid prototyping technologies in the fabrication of occlusal splints, including manufacturing workflow description and essential properties (mechanical- and thermal-based) evaluation of biocompatible splinting materials, was performed.

Without advances in rapid prototyping processes and materials engineering, occlusal splints would tend to underperform clinically due to biomechanical limitations.

Three-dimensional printing can improve the process capabilities for commercial customization of biomechanically efficient occlusal splints.

Rapid technological advancement in dentistry with the extensive utilization of rapid prototyping processes, intra-oral scanners and novel biomaterial seems to be the potential breakthrough in the fabrication of customized occlusal splints which have endorsed occlusal splint therapy (OST) as a cornerstone of orthodontic treatment.

The “4th Industrial Revolution” is characterized by a rapidly developing integration of digital technology and “cyber-physical” capability. Diffusion of open source technology has been cited by security and policing theorists, who note an emerging array of technology-enabled challenges to status quo security regimes. What characteristics define post-industrial crime, and how do post-industrial criminal methods challenge industrial-era security and policing regimes? This chapter opens with an overview of the “4th Industrial Revolution” and its theoretic challenges to conventional security and crime controls. Several pathways of impact are defined in terms of their challenges to industrial-era security, policing, and social controls, and in the complications posed by expanding state countermeasures to combat them. The chapter describes a series of practical, legal, ethical, and technical challenges to be considered for policing and security policy as the 4th Industrial Revolution proceeds.

The purpose of this study is to explore existing literature on Building Information Modelling (BIM) in Malaysia and examine the perception of practitioners about the potential of BIM applications in reducing construction waste and enhancing productivity.

First, using 244 bibliographic data extracted from the Scopus database, the paper used scientometric analysis and VOSviewer mapping technique to assess the most impactful publication literature on BIM in Malaysia to identify the existing research gaps. Second, using a structured questionnaire, a total of 100 questionnaires were distributed to practising practitioners who incorporate BIM in the delivery of their projects. Descriptive analysis using cross-tabulation in SPSS software, radar chart, relative importance index and Pearson’s correlation were used to analyze the data.

The research gaps are in the fields of construction projects, buildings, energy efficiency, lifecycle and housing. The findings of the survey indicate that quantity take-off, clash detection, site utilization planning, digital fabrication as well as 4D stimulation were the main BIM applications used among the practitioners in Johor and Selangor.

By assessing the state-of-the-art of BIM and BIM applications in this region, the practical implications of this study provide useful insights to construction stakeholders, funding organizations, policymakers, research institutions, professionals, journal editors, reviewers and researchers to understand the overall trend of BIM in Malaysia and its usage.

This paper is the first to use science mapping using scientometrics to reveal the current BIM research in “Malaysia only”. Relying on the identified gaps, the study further examined the usage of BIM applications in Malaysian construction projects.

The purpose of this paper is to present novel modifications to a RepRap design that increase RepRap capabilities well beyond just fused filament fabrication. Open-source RepRap 3-D printers have made distributed manufacturing and prototyping an affordable reality.

The design is a significantly modified derivative of the Rostock delta-style RepRap 3-D printer. Modifications were made that permit easy and rapid repurposing of the platform for milling, paste extrusion and several other applications. All of the designs are open-source and freely available.

In addition to producing fused filament parts, the platform successfully produced milled printed circuit boards, milled plastic objects, objects made with paste extrudates, such as silicone, food stuffs and ceramics, pen plotted works and cut vinyl products. The multi-purpose tool saved 90-97 per cent of the capital costs of functionally equivalent dedicated tools.

While the platform was used primarily for production of hobby and consumer goods, research implications are significant, as the tool is so versatile and the fact that the designs are open-source and eminently available for modification for more purpose-specific applications.

The platform vastly broadens capabilities of a RepRap machine at an extraordinarily low price, expanding the potential for distributed manufacturing and prototyping of items that heretofore required large financial investments.

The unique combination of relatively simple modifications to an existing platform has produced a machine having capabilities far exceeding that of any single commercial product. The platform provides users the ability to work with a wide variety of materials and fabrication methods at a price of less than $1,000, provided users are willing to build the machine themselves.

Although many researchers have widely studied additive manufacturing (AM) as one of the most important industrial revolutions, few have presented a bibliometric analysis of the published studies in this area. This paper aims to evaluate AM research trends based on 4607 publications most cited from year 2010 to 2020.

The research methodology is bibliometric indicators and network analysis, including analysis based on keywords, citation analysis, productive journal, related published papers and authors indicators. Two free available software were employed VOSviewer and Bibexcel.

Keywords analysis results indicate that among the AM processes, Selective Laser Melting and Fused Deposition Modeling techniques, are the two processes ranked on top of the techniques employed and studied with 35.76% and 20.09% respectively. The citation analysis by VOSviewer software, reveals that the medical applications field and the fabrication of metal parts are the areas that interest researchers greatly. Different new research niches, as pharmaceutical industry, digital construction and food fabrication are growing topics in AM scientific works. This study reveals that journals “Materials & design”, “Advanced materials”, “Acs applied materials & interfaces”, “Additive manufacturing”, “Advanced functional materials” and “Biofabrication” are the most productive and influential in AM scientific research.

The results and conclusions of this work can be used as indicators of trends in AM research and/or as prospects for future studies in this area.