Research Group Projects and Descriptions

The research of the Smart Cities group focuses on intelligent, sustainable buildings, mobility systems, and cities. It explores the application of new technologies to enabling urban energy efficiency and sustainability, enhanced opportunity and equity, and cultural creativity. The group is particularly concerned with the emerging roles of networked intelligence in fabrication and construction, urban mobility, building design and intelligently responsive operation, and public space. It takes a broadly multidisciplinary approach, not constrained by traditional boundaries.

Can animated playground props support and possibly enhance open-ended and physically active play in playgrounds? This project expands the repertoire of objects conceived specifically for children’s outdoor play environments. A category of playground prop called space explorer suggests new opportunities for children to experience their outdoor play environment.

The Architectural Machines project is augmenting the importance of Computer Numeric Controlled (CNC) machines in fabrication, prototyping, and construction. In particular, the project aims to develop new processes that enable additive prototyping and construction at a large, architectural scale. One specific implementation combines robot arms with 3-D weaving technology to create a new, high-accuracy prototyping machine for on-site fabrication in industries such as architecture, aerospace, and automotive. It would also be suitable for environments that are difficult for humans to inhabit—remote mountain or desert regions, deep sea or even outer space! Currently, industrial robot arms are not only used for repetitive assembly line tasks, but also for composite lay-up, bricklaying, milling and routing, welding, applying adhesives, and many more tasks related to architecture, but these automated CNC systems are mostly stationary and depend on molds to form the final shapes. We are investigating the potential for on-site construction machines that would cut down on overhead in management, coordination, fabrication, and transportation.

Street lighting in most urban environments is not responsive to the presence of people. As awareness around light pollution and energy losses increases how can we retrofit existing infrastructures to become more responsive and interactive? In addition, can we convey information through movement or ambient lighting effects in public spaces? The Augmented Street Light presents a first step towards investigating these questions. Like Urban Pixels in the Smart Cities group, the project further explores the boundaries between information display and urban lighting in cities.

The Smart Cities and Cognitive Machines groups have teamed up with the Center for Future Banking to design a concept banking store in the Boston/Cambridge area. This will be a fully functional banking center that simultaneously serves as a living laboratory—a place where new technologies and interior configurations can quickly be installed, electronically monitored (unobtrusively, and with due concern for privacy) to evaluate their effectiveness in use under demanding real-world conditions, and iteratively redesigned in response to this feedback. Utilizing the Media Lab’s extensive expertise in sensing, data collection, management and analysis of large-scale datasets, and data visualization, we will be able to create an adaptive environment that embodies a robotic cognitive architecture capable of intelligently responding to the occupants and visitors to the building. Architecturally, the flagship should vividly represent commitments to effective engagement with the community that it serves, sustainability, and forward-looking innovation.

A new set of conditions for the design of architecture and automobiles has emerged as a result of the digital revolution. Information technology, low-cost sensing, low-cost computation, CAD/CAM, and innovative materials have changed the rules. As a result, environments and products have greater variety, flexibility, embedded intelligence, and functionality. Mass customization has surpassed mass production. This research looks at developing customizable, intelligent environments beginning with the loft apartment and small car contexts. Such environments would allow for movable wall partitions, connectivity and interchangeability among electronic systems, flexible climatic control, complex spatial configurations, intelligent plumbing and mechanical systems, and adaptive packaging and integration of consumer products.

The CityCar Chassis is a full-scale and modular testing platform consisting of four independently controlled Wheel Robots, an extruded aluminum frame, battery pack, driver's interface, and seating for two. Each Wheel Robot is capable of over 120 degrees of steering freedom, thus giving the CityCar chassis omnidirectional driving ability such as sideways parking, zero-radius turning, torque steering, and variable velocity (in each wheel) steering. The four-wheeler also allows the CityCar design team to add a highly personalized body/cabin and swap in an eventual folding frame.

The CityCar is a foldable, electric, two-passenger vehicle designed for crowded cities. It utilizes fully integrated and modular in-wheel electric motors called Wheel Robots, which integrate drive motors, suspension, braking, and steering inside the hub-space of the wheel. This drive-by-wire system requires only data, power, and mechanical connection to the chassis of the vehicle. Wheel Robots have over 120 degrees of steering freedom, allowing for a zero-turn radius and 90-degree parking (sideways translation); they also enable the CityCar to fold by eliminating the gasoline-powered engine and drive-train. When folded, the CityCar is very compact (roughly 60” or 1500mm), with an on-street parking ratio of at least 3:1 compared to traditional cars. It is also lightweight (1000lbs) and modular, allowing for easy repair, maintenance, and upgrades. It automatically recharges when parked, reducing battery needs, and thus excess weight. The CityCar has two use models: private use—traditional ownership addressing the needs of city living, and shared use—Mobility-On-Demand, high-utilization, one-way shared systems like Paris’s Vélib' bicycle-sharing program.

Alumni Contributor(s): Patrik Kunzler and Philip Liang

Design and modeling processes in architecture and the automotive industry have evolved along completely separate paths. This research project compares these processes in order to discover areas of potential translation or cross-fertilization. Areas such as aesthetics, software, tools, manufacturing, and fabrication have the highest likelihood of translatability.

Working with Juan Alberto Belloch, the mayor of Zaragoza, Spain, MIT developed a programmable water wall composed of digitally controlled solenoids that release water droplets to create a dynamic, urban-scale intervention for Expo 2008. This project focuses on the potential of advanced communications and media technology in the public realm of the Milla Digital in the center of the old city of Zaragoza, rather than in its buildings and private development. The result is an urban design and digital framework, and specific proposals for digitally enhanced environments that will serve the learning, skill development, and social interests of Zaragoza's citizens, as well as making the city more attractive for business growth and tourism.

Rapid prototyping technologies speed product design by facilitating visualization and testing of prototypes. However, such machines are limited to using one material at a time; even high-end 3-D printers which accomodate the deposition of multiple materials must do so discretely and not in mixtures. This project aims to build a proof of concept of a 3-D printer able to dynamically mix and vary the ratios of different materials in order to produce a continuous gradient of material properties. This ability would vastly expand the potential of prototypes, since the varying properties could allow for evaluations such as stress testing.

GreenWheel is a modular in-wheel electric motor that transforms any pedal-powered bicycle into an electrically assisted hybrid bicycle, otherwise known as an E-bike. The unique and patented design integrates electric motor, batteries, and motor controllers inside the hub space without the use of any wires to the frame, thus allowing the GreenWheel to be retrofitted to any type of bicycle. A wireless controller placed on the handlebars of the bicycle allows the user to modulate the amount of power, while allowing the user to pedal simultaneously. Regenerative braking will allow the capture of potential energy when riding downhill in order to assist in recharging the battery. The GreenWheel can be driven approximately 50 miles (80 kilometers) with motor assist and pedaling on one charge. GreenWheel will enable users to easily overcome inclines and to ride longer distances, thus opening up cycling to a wider audience.

We are experimenting with systems that blur the boundary between urban lighting and digital displays in public spaces. These systems consist of liberated pixels, which are not confined to rigid frames as are typical urban screens. Liberated pixels can be applied to existing horizontal and vertical surfaces in any configuration, and communicate with each other to enable a different repertoire of lighting and display patterns. We are currently developing "urban pixels," a wireless infrastructure for liberated pixels. Composed of autonomous, solar-powered units, the system presents a programmable and distributed interface that is flexible and easy to deploy. Each unit includes an on-board battery, solar cells, RF transceiver unit, and microprocessor.

Taipei City Government is going to hold the 2010 International Horticultural Expo in Taipei City and ITRI will debut and operate their 200 Light Electric Vehicles in the Expo site. Smart Cities will collaborate with ITRI to design an urban implementation plan for these vehicles in Taiwan after the Expo is over. The plan will be the pilot program for LEV in a real urban environment and base on the Mobility-On-Demand system.

Mobility On Demand (MOD) systems consist of a fleet of lightweight electric vehicles placed at electrical charging stations that are strategically distributed throughout the city. MOD systems solve the “first and last mile” problem that public transit systems do not solve—providing mobility from the transit station to and from your home or workplace. In a MOD system, users simply walk up to the closest station, swipe a membership card, and are given access to vehicles. They are then allowed to drive to any other station (one-way rental) closest to their desired destination. The Vélib' system in Paris, consisting of over 20,000 shared bicycles, is the largest and most popular MOD system in the world. The Smart Cities group has designed and developed three MOD vehicles: the CityCar, RoboScooter, and GreenWheel Bicycle. The team is also developing a dynamic pricing structure to help redistribute the fleet.

Alumni Contributor(s): Philip Liang

One-way vehicle sharing systems are decentralized urban mobility networks of vehicles and parking stations in which users can randomly pick up a vehicle from any station and drop it off at any other station. However, due to trip distribution asymmetries inventories in the stations quickly get out of balance reducing system reliability. Existing solutions involve fleet redistribution by trucks which turns to be extremely complex, inefficient, and financially unsustainable. Mobility-on-Demand (MoD) is a new self-organized one-way vehicle sharing system that uses dynamic pricing to incentivize users to redistribute the fleet and keep the system in balance. Similarly to a market, trip price adjusts to inventory needs in origin and destination stations. We develop a framework that uses System Dynamics and Network Analysis that explains MoD system behavior and can be used to determine optimum pricing policy, number of parking stations, and number of vehicles for having a stable yet profitable system.

The RoboScooter is an electric, foldable, sharable motorbike developed in collaboration with SYM and ITRI. The goal of this design is to tackle the biggest problems in major urban centers: pollution, congestion, parking, and energy use. The RoboScooter is part of a vehicle-sharing system (see Mobility On Demand project) that allows users to pick up a bike from a scooter stack and drop it off at another stack anywhere in the city. The bike utilizes scooter-sized Wheel Robots developed for the CityCar project. The full-scale working concept prototype was presented at the Milan Motorshow in November 2007. The design team will develop innovative business and ownership models to help implement the scooter through pilot programs developed jointly by candidate cities.

The mechanical components that make driving a vehicle possible—such as acceleration, braking, steering, and springing—are located inside the space of a hubless wheel, forming independent wheel robots and freeing the vehicular space of these components. Connected to the chassis are simple mechanical, power, and data connections, allowing for the wheel robots to plug in to a vehicle simply and quickly. A CPU in the vehicle provides the input necessary for driving according to the vehicle's dimensions or loading condition. The design of the wheel robots provides optimal contact patch placement, lower unsprung and rotational mass, omnidirectional steering, great space savings, and modularity, as the wheel robots can function appropriately on vehicles of different dimensions and weight. By "putting the whole car in the wheel," it is possible to separate production, service, and life cycles of the mechanical components of the car from those of its architectural components.

Alumni Contributor(s): Patrik Kunzler and Philip Liang