A Step Towards Automated Tool Tracking on Construction Sites: Boston Dynamics SPOT and RFID

Abstract

Tool tracking and inventory management on a construction project is often more reactive than proactive. It is not that tools are not of value, but to larger firms, a certain comfort level exists with a loss to a relatively small line item, especially when compared to the resources that may be expended to track the tool inventory. With current market construction robotics serving a number of uses, testing multiple applications of autonomous robots creates more return for end-users. This research aims to execute a proof of concept for automated tool tracking using an autonomous robot and RFID technology. The research was carried out with three types of scans namely: Human held RFID reader; Robot mounted RFID reader in manual mode; Robot mounted RFID reader in autonomous mode. A total of 39 tools were tagged using passive UHF RFID tags and the study looked at the average cycle count time it took time to read 39 tags for the three scan types and the reliability of the robot and RFID technology. Results show reliability of the autonomous robot in acquiring RFID information, including zero failures in tag identification and autonomous guidance.

Toward Autonomous Construction Material Inventory Management using a Boston Dynamics SPOT and Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) Passive RFID

“…The routing for the robot was aimed to simulate a real-world construction site and to also follow guidance formulated using data from previous research (Wetzel et al, 2022a;Wetzel et al, 2022b. ) The robot was routed through the course 10 times with the same environmental conditions as the training route, then 10 more times with obstacles placed in its path to test the robot's ability to adapt to a dynamic construction environment.…”

“…Researchers at Auburn University used a Boston Dynamics SPOT with a Zebra RFD8500 to study the use of autonomous robots and RFID in tracking construction site tool inventory. The study, conducted inside a Conex, showed the system reliably completed all 20 cycles without missing any tags (Wetzel et al, 2022b).…”