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The ancient art of ‘origami’ has recently become the source of inspiration for engineers to create structures that can unfold from a compact state to a fully deployed one. For instance, researchers have currently adopted origami designs in various engineering disciplines, including aerospace engineering, robotics, biomedical engineering, and architecture. In particular, architects have been interested in designing origami-inspired rigid walled structures that can be deployed as disaster-relief shelters. This type of design has three main advantages: transportability, constructability, and rigidity. Although there has been increased interests in deployable structures, limited research has been conducted on evaluating their structural performance, specifically the mechanical performance of the hinges that allow for the rotation of the rigid panels. To address the limitation, this thesis proposes a novel design of hinge connections for rigid origami structures. The hinges utilize snap fit connections to allow for the structure to achieve and maintain a locked state once unfolded without the need for any additional connections. Prototypes of the hinge design were fabricated using a 3D printer and their flexural strength was experimentally and computationally studied. It was concluded that the design could resist typical flexural loads for residential structures, and future research should be performed to minimize deflection.

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"Nothing endures but change" - Heraclitus. Buildings are designed and built to house a specific program for a set period of time. The end of a building's life marks a change in its use. In today's building practices, some building owners opt to demolish an entire building prior to constructing a new one. Unfortunately, this world-wide attitude results in the production of millions of tons of waste every year and is not an ecologically sustainable practice. However, as green building methods become more valued in today's society, building owners and designers are becoming more conscious of buildings' end lives. Construction methods are increasingly involving concepts of designing for disassembly, wherein parts and materials can be easily taken apart for reuse or recycling. Such practices are vital in minimizing the unnecessary production of construction waste. Everything on earth exhibits change. This thesis explores the development of a newly constructed building and its transformation at the end of its life into a new building. The project consists of two designs; the program of the first was predetermined while the program of the second was chosen by the committee at the concluding stage of the first design. This thesis seeks to develop a position on architectural design and construction methods that acknowledges the fact that buildings are not permanent objects and that they will, at some point in time, change. / Master of Architecture

End-of-life lithium-ion batteries retired from portable electronics, electric vehicles (EVs), and power grids need to be properly recycled to save rare earth metals and avoid any hazardous threats to the environment. The recycling process of a Lithium-ion Battery Cell/Module includes storage, transportation, deactivation, disassembly, and material recovery. This study focused on the disassembly step and proposed a systematic method to recover cathode active coating, which is considered the most valuable component of a LIB, from end-of-life LIB pouch cells. A semi-destructive disassembly sequence is developed according to the internal structure of the LIB cell. A fully automated disassembly line aiming at extracting cathode electrodes is designed, modeled, prototyped, and demonstrated based on the disassembly sequence. In order to further obtain the coating material, the extracted cathode electrodes are treated with the organic solvent method and the relationship between process parameters and cathode coating separation yield is numerically studied with the help of Design of Experiment (DOE). Regression models are then fitted from the DOE result to predict the cathode coating separation yield according to combinations of the process parameters. The single cell material separation methodology developed in this study plays an important role in the industrial application of the direct recycling method that may dominate the battery recycling market due to its environmental friendly technology and high recovery rate regardless of element type in the short future. / Doctor of Philosophy / The bursting demand of lithium-ion batteries from portable electronics, electric vehicles, and power grids in the past few years not only facilitate the booming of the lithium-ion battery market, but also put forward serious global concerns: Where should these batteries go at their end-of life and how should they be treated in a safe and harmless manner. As a metal enriched "city mine", end-of-life LIBs are expected to be properly stored, transported, deactivated, disassembled, and recovered with sufficient safety precautions to prevent fire, explosion or any hazardous emissions. This study focuses on the disassembly procedure and emphasized automated battery disassembly techniques and the improving of material separation efficiency. A disassembly sequence of the pouch cell is scheduled and optimized for the first time. To realize the scheduled sequence, a fully automated pouch cell disassembly system is designed to achieve semi-destructive disassembly of z-folded pouch cells. Fixtures, transporters and end-effectors were prototyped and assembled into the modularized disassembly line which extracts cathode electrodes as final product. Cathode electrodes as the most valuable component in a LIB then need to go through multiple chemical-mechanical treatments to future separate cathode coating and Al current collector. This study utilized DOEs to optimize the operating parameters of the material separation process for Lithium cobalt oxide (LCO) coating and Lithium iron phosphate (LFP) coating. Regression models are successfully established for yield prediction with certain levels of control factors.

La compréhension et la prédiction des relations structure-fonction de protéines par des approches in sillico représentent aujourd'hui un challenge. Malgré le développement récent de méthodes algorithmiques pour l'étude du mouvement et des interactions moléculaires, la flexibilité de macromolécules reste largement hors de portée des outils actuels de modélisation moléculaire. L'objectif de cette thèse est de développer une nouvelle approche basée sur des algorithmes de planification de mouvement issus de la robotique pour mieux traiter la flexibilité moléculaire dans l'étude des interactions protéiques. Nous avons étendu un algorithme récent d'exploration par échantillonnage aléatoire, ML-RRT pour le désassemblage d'objets articulés complexes. Cet algorithme repose sur la décomposition des paramètres de configuration en deux sous-ensembles actifs et passifs, qui sont traités de manière découplée. Les extensions proposées permettent de considérer plusieurs degrés de mobilité pour la partie passive, qui peut être poussée ou attirée par la partie active. Cet outil algorithmique a été appliqué avec succès pour l'étude des changements conformationnels de protéines induits lors de la diffusion d'un ligand. A partir de cette extension, nous avons développé une nouvelle méthode pour la résolution simultanée du séquençage et des mouvements de désassemblage entre plusieurs objets. La méthode, nommée Iterative-ML-RRT, calcule non seulement les trajectoires permettant d'extraire toutes les pièces d'un objet complexe assemblé, mais également l'ordre permettant le désassemblage. L'approche est générale et a été appliquée pour l'étude du processus de dissociation de complexes macromoléculaires en introduisant une fonction d'évaluation basée sur l'énergie d'interaction. Les résultats présentés dans cette thèse montrent non seulement l'efficacité mais aussi la généralité des algorithmes proposés. / Understanding and predicting structure-function relationships in proteins with fully in silico approaches remain today a great challenge. Despite recent developments of computational methods for studying molecular motions and interactions, dealing with macromolecular flexibility largely remains out of reach of the existing molecular modeling tools. The aim of this thesis is to develop a novel approach based on motion planning algorithms originating from robotics to better deal with macromolecular flexibility in protein interaction studies. We have extended a recent sampling-based algorithm, ML-RRT, for (dis)-assembly path planning of complex articulated objects. This algorithm is based on a partition of the configuration parameters into active and passive subsets, which are then treated in a decoupled manner. The presented extensions permit to consider different levels of mobility for the passive parts that can be pushed or pulled by the motion of active parts. This algorithmic tool is successfully applied to study protein conformational changes induced by the diffusion of a ligand inside it. Building on the extension of ML-RRT, we have developed a novel method for simultaneously (dis)assembly sequencing and path planning. The new method, called Iterative-ML-RRT, computes not only the paths for extracting all the parts from a complex assembled object, but also the preferred order that the disassembly process has to follow. We have applied this general approach for studying disassembly pathways of macromolecular complexes considering a scoring function based on the interaction energy. The results described in this thesis prove not only the efficacy but also the generality of the proposed algorithms

Developing the greenest battery cell and establishing a European supply of batteries is the main goal for Northvolt. To achieve this, the recycling of batteries is a key enabler towards closing the loop and enabling the future of energy.When it comes to the recycling of electric vehicle battery packs, dismantling is one of of the main process steps.Given the size, weight and high voltage of the battery packs, automatic disassembly using robots is the preferred solution. The work presented in this thesis aims to develop and integrate a vision system able to identify and verify the battery pack dismantling process. To achieve this, two cameras were placed in the robot cell and the object detectors You Only Look Once (YOLO) and template matching were implemented, tested and compared. The results show that YOLO is the best object detector out of the ones implemented. The integration of the vision system with the robot controller was also tested and showed that with the results from the vision system, the robot controller can make informed decisions regarding the disassembly.

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The environmental impacts of the construction industry, and the built environment, as the end product of construction activity, are massive due to the extensive use of energy and resources. Sustainability and circular economy are recognized as the main solution to the existing environmental impacts of this industry and the main approach to the sustainable development of it. The transition of a construction project’s life cycle from a linear one starting with material processing and ending up at demolition stage to a real cyclic life cycle needs defining alternative end-of-life scenarios. Deconstruction as one of the alternative end-of-life scenarios is defined as salvaging material of a dismantled structure for reuse or recycling. Design for deconstruction refers to the importance of considering deconstruction as the end-of-life scenario in the design stage of structures. This thesis aims to define the existing challenges and opportunities in the deconstruction of timber structures by the study of cases in which dis- and re-assembly are done. The study also aims to measure deconstructability by developing an indicator system for design for deconstruction of volumetric timber structures based on design for disassembly principles existing in ISO 20887:2020 and the practical principles of the case studies. This is done by interviewing people at five different companies who were engaged in the dis- and re-assembly of structures. The study of these cases shows the gap between disassembly principles and real-world experience from a learn-from-practice point of view. The developed tool as the indicator system is consisted of 25 indicators under seven principles and is able to measure and provide a deconstructability grade of structures out of 100 for each principle and a total deconstructability grade based on all principles. / Measurable Reusability for Wooden Houses (Mätbar Återbrukbarhet för Trähus)