Using interactive evolution to design behaviors for non-deterministic self-organized construction

Self-organizing construction is an emerging subdomain for on-site construction robots. This not only presents new challenges for robotics, but due to the stochasticity involved in such systems, impacts the modeling and prediction of resulting built structures. Self-organizing models have been explored by architects for generative design and for optimization, but so far have infrequently been studied in the context of construction. Here we present a strategy for architects to design with non-deterministic self-organizing behaviors, using interactive evolution to incorporate user judgment. We introduce our “Integrated Growth Projection” method, having implemented it into a software pipeline for early phase design. We test the software with an initial user group of architects, to see whether the method and pipeline helps them design a non-deterministic self-organizing behavior. The user group creates several hybrid controllers that reliably solve their chosen design tasks.