Reverberation control for a hybrid meeting room through robotic deposition control

This project investigates robotic 3D printing for transforming recycled plastics into acoustic panels for a small meeting room. Using a KUKA KR70 robot with a pellet extruder, plastic waste was directly printed into seventeen, 5 mm thick, lightweight panels featuring curved, perforated geometries designed for sound scattering and absorption. In using fully recycled polyethylene plastic, this approach demonstrates circular strategies for functional, on-demand custom products, improving reuse at low cost while diverting waste towards architectural surface applications. Baseline acoustic testing showed excessive reverberation (1.29 s) in the untreated room, which impaired speech clarity. After installation, the 3D-printed panels reduced mid-frequency reverberation to 0.86 s, significantly improving clarity, consistent with sample acoustic test results. Furnished and occupied speech transmission index results are in the ‘excellent intelligibility’ range. Results demonstrate that strategically perforated, robotically 3D-printed plastic panels can provide acoustic benefits comparable to conventional sound absorbers. The study combines acoustic analysis, sound requirements, and resulting robotic fabrication setup, and contributes a model for material reuse and adaptive interior systems that enhance communication and bind reclaimed plastics in architectural applications.