We present AirTied, a device that fabricates truss structures in a fully automatic fashion. AirTied achieves this by un-rolling a 20cm-wide inflatable plastic tube and tying nodes into it. AirTied creates nodes by holding onto a segment of tube, stacking additional tube segments on top of it, tying them up, and releasing the result. The resulting structures are material efficient and light as well as sturdy, as we demonstrate by creating a 6m-tower. Unlike the prior art, AirTied requires no scaffolding and no building blocks, bringing automated truss construction into the reach of personal fabrication.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3586183.3606820
ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology