Reinterpreting the Dougong joint: a systematic review of robotic technologies for the assembly of timber joinery

The Dougong (brackets set) is a traditional Chinese capital used to transfer the roof load to the columns. Besides its historical significance, it is also known for its anti-seismic and environmentally friendly properties. This paper investigates which existing digital design and fabrication technologies are suitable for the automated assembly and production of the Dougong joint by reviewing relevant research. The paper systematically reviews and comparatively analyses 23 articles filtered through 1,774 publications searched by using the keywords ‘timber’, ‘digital fabrication’, and ‘robot’ in the databases Scopus, CumlnCAD, ScienceDirect, Engineer Village, IEEE and Semantic Scholar. Our findings include a comparative analysis chart evaluating workflows, tools and technologies on their suitability for the robotic reinterpretation of the Dougong, as well as the proposal of a novel design for fabrication workflow for that particular purpose, which is verified through the design and fabrication of a timber column fragment.