Besides reading the articles from Access Science two was a blog post titled
Architects Using Robots to Build Beautiful Structures and the
other was a journal article titled Trend analysis
of research and development on automation and robotics technology in the
construction industry these two you can see on our Gdocs page.
The robot in “Architects Using Robots to Build Beautiful Structures” is a
mechanical arm and it looks like the ones used to build cars. It has the
capability to work inside or outdoors. Besides creating brick walls, this robot
could also build a column out of wooden slats and has a milling attachment to
mill parts for construction. This robot is able to move as well, it can be
fitted onto tracks or onto treads where it can to roam freely. The robot can do
large projects such as a 22 meter long wall. In 2009 the team used robots to
help create a wooden structure. The robot was able to cut and place the wooden
slats according to an algorithm. You can see a video of it in action from the
link to the article.
In the research article “Trend analysis of research and development on
automation and robotics technology in the construction industry”, it focuses on
the growing trend on the research and development of robotics and other advanced
technology in the construction industry. It looked at research papers that
appeared in the International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in
Construction (ISARC) from 1990-2008 to see if there were any trends. The authors
looked at organized the research into different categories, such as Planning and
Design, Construction Robotics and Intelligent Job-Site Management, Operation and
Maintenance. They also discuss in what countries are researching these
technologies and what organizations are doing the research and what categories
they are focusing on.
How does all of these articles relate to each other and relate to class?
Well, based off what I found and the discussion and video from class on Tuesday,
the industry seems to be focusing on research and development of robotics and automation in the
construction phase, more so than the design or maintenance of a building. If
they can streamline the construction process, more projects can be done faster
and in the long run save project owners money and increase profit margin for
construction firms.
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ReplyDeleteFrom our lecture in Week 1 and in several articles I came across, the subject of Robotics is, as you have discussed, being developed further to focus on the construction phase of building design. It is evident that much more experimentation is required for robots to be useful in helping to construct the load bearing structural elements of a building, but the 22-foot wall construction noted in your post indicates that robotics research is likely moving forward from merely pre-fabricating pieces to be used for construction. The articles I read focused more on the use of robots in the maintenance of buildings, but also clearly stated that this field is focusing a great deal on the construction phase of buildings.
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