Leveraging Human-Robot Collaboration in Construction (Continued)
Research Team
Our Motivation:
“Given the unique requirements of the construction industry, robots need to work alongside of humans. Our multi-disciplinary work in this project brings together expertise from Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, and Civil Engineering. We deployed state-of-the-art advances in human-robot collaboration in the robotics field like haptics to allow for intuitive programming of construction tasks. Haptic devices are especially useful to leverage the human expertise and intuition while taking advantage of the safety and precision of robot for repetitive tasks.”
Research Contribution
Exploring human-robot collaboration with haptics for five fundamental construction tasks.
Designed three robot prototypes in hardware for unstructured environments.
Expanding the understanding of mobile grasp and manipulation skills that can be learned from human demonstration.
Problem
Practical Problem
Manual assembly on site demands
Repetitive and strenuous tasks for workers
Despite the benefits of robots in prefabrication, field robots present challenges to autonomously operate in highly unstructured environments.
Solution
Develop robot skills with haptics that enable the collaboration between humans and robots.
Test simulation prototypes in hardware.
Added Value For The Industry
Prototype robot designs for construction tasks difficult to automate.
Utilize state of the art robot technologies like haptics with real hardware for intuitive human-robot collaboration.
Develop robot skills from haptic demonstrations.
Cooperation Partner
Goldbeck GmbH, Germany
Timeline
|
Date |
Activity |
Outcome |
|
Year 2019 |
Research became awarded: Leveraging Human-Robot Collaboration in Construction |
|
|
Sep. 2019 |
Defined case studies to explore with safe, collaborative, and bi-manual robots |
|
|
Apr. 2020 |
Completed rich construction environment in simulation |
|
|
Oct. 2020 |
Captured production data on a construction site in Germany |
|
|
Year 2020 |
Research became awarded: Leveraging Human-Robot Collaboration in Construction (Continuation) |
|
|
Sep. 2020 |
Tested 5 robots designs in simulation for painting, drywalling, bolting, sealing joints, and welding. |
|
|
Jan. 2021 |
Set-up hardware prototypes in the lab for haptic bolting, sealing joints, and welding. |
|
|
Year 2021 |
Research became awarded: Leveraging Human-Robot Collaboration in Construction (Continued) |
|
|
|
|
Submitted paper to ISARC 2021 detailing results of haptic welding and joint sealing |
|
|
Tested bi-manual bolting simulation with hardware |
|
NEXT STEPS: Can we teach robot skills from haptic demonstration?