Introducing a new Approach in Digital Fabrication based on Augmented Reality Technology in Architecture

By introducing new digital fabrication techniques and robotic fabrication in the 20th century, architects were encouraged to use innovative materials and novel tools to solve problems not only in design, but also in construction. Robots allow architects to design a more complex machining process for on-site fabricating work, but they were very costly and complicated as well. Because of rapid development and adoption of Augmented Reality (AR) applications, there are numerous opportunities for integrating AR and improving conventional methods used in various fields such as architecture, engineering, construction, and facility management. This paper demonstrates a new method of digital fabrication based on “Augmented Reality” which can reduce construction cost using simple utilities, (digital camera, monitor and processor), as well as providing the ability of constructing free-form surfaces. All codes are developed in “Processing” scripting language and the form is developed in “Grasshopper”, a graphical algorithm editor integrated with “Rhino’s” 3-D modeling tools. Finally, the efficiency of this method is studied in two examples.