Hyphae growth Agent based system + SLS 3D printing

Seminar Computational Design and Digital Fabrication
Tutors: Long Nguyen, Tobias Schwinn
ITECH Master Program in the University of Stuttgart
Francesco Milano, Karen Antorveza, Mengdi Zhao

April 2019

This exercise involved studying a formation process in nature (mycelium growth) and its abstraction, using Python programming to generate a complex geometry. The mycelium is the vegetative part of fungi, which consists of a network of interconnected filamentous cells called hyphae. The logic this structure follows while growing can be outlined in a defined set of rules: it is concentric, directional, branches progressively, and is space-filling. We simulated this behavior through an agent-based algorithm, where a certain amount of particles iteratively move away from a central point, wander in space, and reproduce following precise behavioral instructions. To the trajectory of each particle, volumetric properties were given using a voxelization algorithm which finally converts the system into a three-dimensional object to be materialized through SLS 3D printing.




Separation force


End points detection Random branching


End points detection, random branching.






KAPHEND 2024 — Planet Earth