No abstract

In this paper, we present a set of enabling technologies developed for the KUKA Innovation Award to facilitate Human Robot collaboration targeted for the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) sector. Critically, little progress has been made in the usability of user interfaces for industrial robots [1]. We targeted our investigation explicitly towards human-robot collaboration (HRC) in wood based prefabrication production. Although wood is a sustainable material with abundant processing possibilities, it is also a material system where process knowledge remains critically important, making highly automated workflows unfeasible and inefficient. We propose an interactive fabrication process where a user such as a construction worker could wear an augmented reality head mounted display (ARHMD) as an interface to plan robotic trajectories, influence production sequencing, and view superimposed diagnostic feedback. We describe necessary system components including a robotic workcell consisting of a KUKA LBR iiwa, flexFELLOW mobile platform, a Robotiq 2-finger gripper and a custom platform and material feeding station. In addition, we describe a communication framework and set of protocols connecting a CAD digital design environment, a user interface (UI) for Microsoft HoloLens, a ROS server for backend path planning and coordination, and a 3D graphical web interface for downstream visualization of construction status. We conclude with an outlook on enabling technologies for human-robot collaboration in construction, and the importance of increasing digital integration and accessibility in characteristic production workflows through accessible and intuitive digital interfaces.

No abstract

The article presents a cable-driven parallel robot for the in situ construction with designed granular materials at full architectural scale. Granular materials are defined as high numbers of particles larger than a micrometer, between which only short-range repulsive forces are acting. Therefore, they can have the properties of both a solid and a liquid. These materials are, thus, highly pertinent as construction materials, since they are fully recyclable and reconfigurable. Going even beyond these basic properties, a designed granular material allows to tune its overall characteristics through the design of the individual particle. Granular materials can only be deployed in situ and at full scale. Suitable robotic construction systems need to be developed. Cable-driven parallel robots are defined as robotic systems, in which an "end effector" is operated by a set of cables, which are driven by computer numerically controlled motors. The cables are running through elevated pulleys. A cable-driven parallel robot, thus, allows for a "working space", which covers an entire building site. It is comparatively lightweight and, thus, transportable between different construction sites, it is rapidly deployable, since the entire setup takes one day only, and it is adaptable, since the pulleys can be installed in various geometric configurations. The results of this investigation show that cable-driven parallel robots are suitable as construction systems for the full-scale in situ construction of spatial enclosures with designed granular materials. This opens up a new field of research into the potentials of these full-scale, lightweight, rapidly deployable and adaptable robotic construction systems.

The original version of this article unfortunately contained mistakes. The conflict of interest was incorrect. The corrected conflict of interest is given below.