In the future, will our environments constantly change around us according to the weather and our whims, without us having to lift a finger? If ‘Wallbots’ are any indication, the homes of the future might be even more adaptable than we imagined. This concept by architect and technologist Otto Ng is a mobile wall system that reconfigures itself based on real-time information.
Developed at the University of Toronto’s RAD (Responsive Architecture at Daniels), the Wallbots system is a set of ‘architectural intelligent agents’ that change spatial boundaries in a room based on weather data as well as a home’s inhabitants’ social networking and behaviors.
Each individual wallbot is equipped with electronic and kinetic systems that enable it to stretch itself from 1 meter to 1.5 meters in width by expanding its origami skin and kinetic skeleton. Free of tracks or other limitations, the walls move around the interior of a space on wheels. The Wallbots can attach to each other using electromagnetic mechanisms with infra-red positioning feedback, forming longer walls.
“Learning from scientific research in collective intelligence, WALLBOTS perform in swarm condition and communicate among themselves wirelessly. Through a feedback loop, WALLBOTS also analyze their previous experience and learn to do better configuration design for new scenarios.”
Learn more and see other projects by Otto Ng at Ottocad.net.
