Robot builder designed for construction sites
Wed Oct 21, 2015 7:33am EDT
Robot builder designed for construction sites
BY JIM DRURY
Zurich-based architects and roboticists have created the
In-situ Fabricator, an autonomous construction robot capable of laying bricks
into pre-programmed structures. Designers at the Swiss National Center of
Competence in Research (NCCR) Digital Fabrication laboratory believe a future
generation of the robot could be used widely on building sites.
Matthias Kohler, of ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute
of Technology in Zurich), is one of the supervising professors on the research
team. According to Kohler, who is also an architect, it is "the first
machine that can actually go on construction sites and build non-standard
designs, meaning designs which can vary and adapt to the local conditions
directly in the building site."
Professor Jonas Buchli supervises the research. He told
Reuters that construction sites are fascinating to roboticists. "The
construction site for us, as a robotics researcher, is an interesting
environment because it somewhere in between the completely planned and
controlled environment of a factory or a lab floor, and the completely chaotic
environment of outdoors, so it's kind of a semi-structured environment where we
can test and develop the technology that is required for robots to move around
and do useful things in such environments," said Buchli.
The robot is an industrial arm on a mobile base and is
designed to be self-contained, without the need for external localization systems.
Its 2D laser range finder, in conjunction with computer algorithms, help build
up a 3D map of a site linked to structural plans.
The map allows the robot to know its location at all
times and move around a construction site unaided. It can also adapt
autonomously to minor design variations.
"We have a series of sensors that we have already
mounted and that we will mount on the robot," said Buchli. "There are
several sensors mounted on the robot which can measure the distance. We will
mount cameras. There is an IMU (inertial measurement unit) - this is a device
that can measure the orientation of the robot in space, and with fusing all
this information together for the robot to know where it is in space."
There are also two computers on board the robot, Buchli
told Reuters. "One for the arm and one for the overall robot and on these
computers we online calculate the required information for the robot to move
and know where it is."
Kohler says a robot builder would have multiple benefits,
not least in terms of reducing the planning time required before building
begins.
"The benefit from an architectural point of view is
that you can really design the construction directly, so you can plan for how
it is built instead of designing your plan and then that plan afterwards being
converted on the construction site. So it actually changes the paradigm of how
you design and build quite fundamentally," said Kohler.
Human construction workers might be horrified by the idea
of a robot performing the same job better, but Kohler insists there is no need
for their alarm. "I think this will become a game-changer in construction,
I believe so. I think that in the next five to ten years we are going to see
mobile robots on the construction site, but they're not going to replace
humans. They'll actually collaborate with humans, so the best of each kind of
skills come together," he said.
NCCR Digital Fabrication is working on a range of radical
projects inside its ETH Zurich premises on the Science City campus. One program
involves robotic aggregations of materials with unpredictable geometry, in
which random pieces of rubble can be measured by robot and structured to fit
together to make a complete standing structure.
Another project garnering interest is Mesh Mould, a
digitally-controlled, 3D printed, extrusion process in which robotically
fabricated reinforcement meshes can be filled with concrete, eliminating the
need for formwork.
A new state-of-the art robotic fabrication laboratory
that will allow them to expand is under construction and due to open in
September 2016.
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