Creative Spaces

Robotics Lab

  • Robotics Lab at the Spitzer School of Architecture

  • Robotics Lab at the Spitzer School of Architecture

  • An interior view of the Robotics Lab at the top public architecture school, featuring an ABB robotic arm programmed to 3D print clay.

  • Two Master of Architecture students programming the ABB robotic arm in the Robotics Lab at the affordable yet high-quality Spitzer School of Architecture.

  • Robotics Lab at the Spitzer School of Architecture

  • Robotics Lab at the Spitzer School of Architecture

  • An interior view of the Robotics Lab at the best public architecture school in NYC, featuring an ABB robotic arm programmed to 3D print clay.

  • Two MS Arch students programming the ABB robotic arm to draw with a sharpie in the Robotics Lab at the Spitzer School of Architecture.

  • Robotics Lab at the Spitzer School of Architecture

The Robotics Lab is the Spitzer School of Architecture’s gateway to the future—an immersive space where students and faculty design, prototype, and experiment with emerging technologies reshaping how we design, build, and maintain the built environment. A dynamic learning ecosystem, the lab demystifies robotics and automation, empowering users to work hands-on from day one: testing ideas, refining workflows, and developing the technical fluency demanded by today’s design, construction, and environmental professions. The lab also expands faculty research capacity, opening the door to more ambitious and experimental work, and to collaboration with industry partners to test ideas that can change how the industry builds.

WHAT IT INCLUDES:

Thanks to a $6.1M investment from the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York, this newly opened lab is one of the most advanced in any architecture program in the United States. The Robotics Lab provides immersive training with professional-grade tools, enabling students to prototype faster, work more safely, and design with unprecedented accuracy and imagination. It includes:
• Three connected workspaces
• Dedicated training area
• Four compact robots, two of which are fully collaborative
• 16-foot-high research bay with two advanced robotic arms, including one on a track
• Robotic attachments for extrusion, milling, gripping, and
vision-based fabrication.
• Supporting equipment for digital fabrication, scanning,
computation, and documentation

At Spitzer, robotics is viewed as a design tool, not just a conventional fabrication device. Robots are approached as broadly applicable general-purpose motion devices. The number, scope, and elaboration of functions, processes, and tasks each arm can carry out are nearly endless. One determinant of this flexibility, and a source of great potential, is the physical interface a robotic arm presents to the world — the tools or effectors that, when attached to the end of the arm, allow work to be carried out. The movable end of the arm — the “wrist” — is “open” and flexible and to which can be attached an unlimited number and variety of tools, objects, and small systems. Possibilities include all manner of drawing instruments, scribing tools, light sources, image capture devices, grippers, virtually any hand or power tool, extruders, grinders, and milling equipment. Harnessing robots’ precise programmed motion control, connection to robotic arms of cameras, video screens, and other visual production devices opens an entire realm of possibilities for architectural conceptualization, representation, documentation, expression, and even entertainment.

The lab utilizes several software tools including HAL, Robots GH plug-in, and Mimic. These interface with familiar design applications such as Rhino, Grasshopper, and Maya, providing a bridge to Robot Studio, an industrial-grade comprehensive robot control and simulation suite. The lab also has available advanced 3-D printers and a host of tools to serve students and faculty working in the Spitzer Robotics Lab.

Robotics Lab