Interlocking Block Assembly With Robots

This article presents a design for interlocking blocks and an algorithm that allows these blocks to be assembled into desired shapes. During and after assembly, the structure is kinematically interlocked if a small number of blocks are immobilized relative to other blocks. There are two types of blocks: cubes and double-height posts, each with a particular set of male and female joints. Layouts for shapes involving thousands of blocks have been planned automatically, and shapes with several hundred blocks have been built by hand. This article also describes a method for assembling structures from blocks in parallel. As a proof of concept, a dual-robot system was used to assemble 48 blocks, forming an interlocking cube-like structure. Note to Practitioners—This article was inspired by existing work on interlocking joinery structures, modular robots, and construction robots. We present designs for two interlocking blocks that can be assembled into larger rigid structures. Blocks of this type are a promising future construction material. Only translation is needed to assemble the blocks, simplifying robotic assembly, and the mortarless construction allows for later disassembly and reuse of the blocks. We propose an algorithm that lays out blocks into desired shapes in series and developed a dual-robot system to assemble 48 blocks automatically. Our physical experiments show that joint manufacturing precision is critical to the ease of construction and the rigidity of the finished structure. We also present a layout algorithm that enables parallel assembly, allowing multiple robots to work on the same structure.