Towards Automated Installation of Reinforcement Using Industrial Robots

摘要

The construction industry is today among the least automated industries with a long tradition of utilizing manual labour. Despite the potential benefits of automation, only a few examples of using robots to automate (parts of) construction have been presented over the past years. In this paper we present our ongoing work towards automated installation of reinforcement, a traditionally very heavy and labour intensive work. We use industrial robots and we discuss the potential benefits and challenges of such robotic automation in construction. Our overall goal is to achieve a fully automated robotic solution for flexible serial production of custom made non-identical reinforcement cages. In the paper we highlight and analyse the main challenges that must be addressed in order to reach a functioning and efficient solution.