Robitics and Construction

The assigned Robotics article discusses Robotics as a general field, and also delves into all specific areas of robotics. It goes into detail on mechanisms and geometries of robotic parts, as well as how the data is retrieved and processed. I found it very interesting that when it comes to design, it seems that the wrist is the trickiest joint in which to imitate robotically because of its degree of motion and feasibility of motor installation. I also find it interesting that we have developed robots in some sense to keep us out of danger, rather than to be more efficient.. Robots are basically broken up into control systems and sensory systems. The control system absorbs data and tells the robot how to move, while the sensory system collects that data based on surroundings. If these sensors are programmed to pick up data linked to temperature, energy use, and other building information, they can be used in a BIM-like design instead of a moving robot. BIM requires systems to be “Intelligent”, or to be able to change their operation based on incoming data analysis. I think that a great new field in robotics is prosthetics because of their remarkable ability to act as real human body parts. This field is only going to become more advanced with time. The most expensive part of robotics is the programming of these structures, which is not surprising to me. This article does a great job of giving a technical background of robotics so that the reader can understand how robotics works. It then hints at applications of robotics, but the main thread of the article is specifically how the machines operate and how they’re put together.

            The additional article I found is called “Is A Robot In Your Future?” By Ivan Jivkov. This article references steel construction procedures and software applications, and explains how robotics can be used in steel construction to provide more efficient, fast construction techniques. The problem that arises in this article is that the current software data exchange systems used in most steel construction would not be able to process the 3D images associated with robotic software. Robotics would involve building 3D models to show where parts do not fit together to prevent assembly errors before they happen (Jivkov, 2011). The author then argues that replacing welders with robots would increase efficiency by up to ten times, and would be done in a quicker fashion. Another problem faced is that almost all structures are very different, so robotic programming would have to be changed from project to project, requiring man hours of programming rather than manual labor. (Jivkov, 2011). He describes the ideal possibility being that a design model can be directly sent to a robot and the robot will be able to process the model and weld the actual structure accordingly. This would be a huge step in construction based intelligent systems, and new software systems would need to be put in place in order to get to this level.

            While the first article gives you an introduction into all the aspects of robotics, it is essentially a starting point for articles taking that information and showing how it’s being used today or how it could be used in the future. The second article describes one area of construction that could use robotics to become more efficient. Having read the assigned article, I developed a technical understanding of robotics that I was able to use to understand some of the applications of robotics talked about in the second article. Other students seemed to have the same reaction to the first article as I did. It was informative because we don’t have much experience in robotics as a group. It was also nice to read other students’ articles concerning construction and how robotics can be used in this field.