Staff and students of the Mediated Matter group of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) research laboratory, commonly known as the MIT Media Lab, have devoted their time to a new project that uses robotics and silkworms: both were used to weave a Silk Pavilion.
This project proved how scientists could benefit from using natural processes, such as silkworms spinning silk, to enhance man-made structures. The MIT researchers realized, in fact, that these caterpillar larvae, which are the source of the silk, could be used to find new ways of overcoming the current limitations of additive manufacturing processes at architectural scales.
MIT researchers were able to create an architectural structure that is realistically more efficient than what can be achieved by current 3D printing technologies. With their project, the researchers were able to achieve structural and material complexity using an innovative method.
Above, the completed Silk Pavilion.
As part of their research, members of the MIT Media Lab project explored silkworms’ weaving habits, as if they were spinning their own cocoons, to have them construct the rest of a pavilion. The lab individuals then studied the relationship between digital and biological fabrication as a computational schema.
For this MIT project, the team first created a dome structure using an industrial robotics arm that used a single thread guided by an algorithm that calculated the different degrees of density for various parts of the assembly.
The researchers then placed each of the 6,500 silkworms involved in the study on the rim of the dome structure that was created by 26 polygonal, flat panels composed by the silk threads laid by a CNC (Computer-Numerically Controlled) machine. It was then that they were able to observe their construction methods—having earlier fitted motion-tracking devices attached to the heads of the silkworms—to see how they went about in filling in each of the panels to complete the 3D design and shape of the silk pavilion.
From the structure, the group was able to extract invaluable information on the way the thread was formed and how it was laid. This information could have practical applications in the future of 3D printing threads.
The MIT crew studied the overall geometry of the dome assemblage and got figures on the various degrees of density that the silkworm created. They also discovered that silkworms tend to migrate to darker and denser areas as they wove silk across the surface of the structure.
