UNLOG: A Deployable, Lightweight, and Bending-Active Timber Construction Method

Abstract

UNLOG is a lightweight and easily deployable timber framing method that utilizes robotic kerfing techniques to transform emerald ash borer (EAB)-infested timbers into materially efficient leaf-spring components. We developed this bending-active structural system through geometric studies and physical prototypes. They contribute to ongoing research in robotic fabrication with natural log geometries, bending-active structural systems, deployable structures, minimum-waste fabrication, material circularity, and Mixed Reality (MR) applications for component assembly. Using only six logs, threaded rods, and custom recycled HPDE washers, the resulting pavilion demonstrates the feasibility of the UNLOG method to construct leaf-spring components through MR instruction and robotic kerfing techniques with EAB-infested ash wood.