Recent Progress in the SPIDER Progress

Abstract

This contribution illustrates the efforts currently conducted in the SPIDER project, a third-party funded project focussing on an unconventional way of thermal building retrofit. SPIDER thereby stands for Subtraction as a measure to Preserve and Insulate historic Developments by Electric Robots. As an exploratory project, the principle feasibility of using façade-climbing, autonomous robots, which perform drill work in existing facades to integrate insulating (air) pockets, is examined. In contrast to conventional thermal retrofit of facades, the present approach yet has to be thoroughly explored. The idea is in detail meant for richly decorated facades of high architectural meaningfulness, which cannot be subjected to conventional thermal insulation. Thereby, a number of challenges have to be addressed: First, the utilization of autonomous robots as building retrofitting machines sounds tempting, but is connected with a large number of technological and organizational obstacles that need be overcome. Moreover, the use of a subtractive approach encompasses several constraints connected to structural stability and building physics. This contribution highlights the different research questions and challenges as well as provides a first overview about the findings of the research project.