Innovative Timber Dowel Reciprocal Lattice (TDRL) System Patented by Hi-DARS Lab Researchers

Pictured from Left to Right, Top to Bottom: Sina Mostafavi, Tahmures Ghiyasi, Edgar Montejano, Cole Howell.

The Timber Dowel Reciprocal Lattice (TDRL) System, a recent innovation that addresses the challenges of fabricating lattice structures, is now officially filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The patent was invented by Associate Professor Sina Mostafavi, Ph.D., PhD students Tahmures Ghiyasi and Edgar Montejano, and former student assistant Cole Howell. The TDRL system builds upon the research done at the Hi-DARS lab___Hybrid Intelligence Design & Architectural Robotic Systems to create a self-balancing lattice structure.

The system is set apart by its elimination of traditional joint-based connections and adhesives. Instead, TDRL uses reciprocal displacement of timber dowels, positioned at specific angles within pre-designed placeholders, creating counterbalancing forces that naturally stabilize the structure. The system uses a voxel-based design approach, where linear structural members and horizontal panels are precisely produced and assembled using robotic fabrication and augmented reality. Filed as a utility provisional patent, the application has undergone independent reviews and received support from the Office of Research Commercialization at Texas Tech

To learn more about Hi-DARS lab, click the link here:

https://hi-dars.org/

To access the Office of Research Commercialization at Texas Tech website, click the link here:

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