Michael Fox (Cal Poly Pomona) - Viral Structures
I was fortunate to attend the final review as a member of the jury. A number of really interesting reconfigurable robotic projects were presented.
The central issues explored in this studio will be on Space Manufacturing which is carried out by small modular robotics at a variety of scales. Such systems will demonstrate value for three primary reasons: 1)The required quantity of structural material resources is far in excess of what can be sensibly be launched from the Earth. 2) The required civil and structural engineering tasks dictate machinery requirements far in excess of what can be sensibly launched from Earth. and 3) the requirement of fabricating the components and building and maintaining the facilities. Issues of embedded computational control structures, communication and kinetic engineering are therefore paramount. The environment on the moon will be seriously considered including: gravity, pressure, radiation, and the mass balance of resources and waste required for sustaining human life at such a scale.
see website here
