Fink and Partner Finalists for American-Made Challenge E-ROBOT Prize
A team led by associate ECE professor and Edward & Maria Keonjian Endowed Chair Wolfgang Fink and assistant professor of architecture Jonathan Bean is one of 10 finalist prize winners of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Envelope Retrofit Opportunities for Building Optimization Technologies Prize, or E-ROBOT Prize. Each finalist team is awarded $200,000.
The team is working on wall-EIFS, a robotically applied, 3D-sprayable exterior insulation and finish system for building envelope retrofits.
wall-EIFS is a robot that operates from a stage track or scissor lift. The system evaluates existing conditions of a building and the quality of the insulation application in real-time using sensing technologies, saving more than 50% in time, labor and materials.
“The wall-EIFS system offers durable insulation and aesthetic flexibility, executed with robotic precision in a fully automated manner," Fink said. “wall-EIFS is intended to expand the market and accelerate retrofits of existing buildings. By creating a new skilled trade of robotic building retrofit operators, the system will facilitate the retrofit of buildings at scale in a safe manner while significantly reducing cost, as well as the energy footprint of the nation.”
The E-ROBOT Prize’s goal is to catalyze the development of minimally invasive, low-cost and holistic building envelope retrofit solutions that make retrofits easier, faster, safer and more accessible for workers.
"Imagine the whole thing as a gigantic, 3D-printing operation which you now attach to the side of a house or a building," Fink said in a recent interview with Arizona Public Media.