Robotics automation is a promising solution for the fabrication of structures made out of reinforced concrete. The reinforcement is often installed directly in the form and barby-bar. Using bigger pre-fabricated units (cages) may be beneficial for saving construction time and better labor safety. In this paper, we focus on the problem of automating the generation of a plan for the installation of rebars, given the digital twin of a desired reinforcement cage design, and of its basic components. More specifically, the plan describes the assembling order for the rebars such that (i) it is possible to fabricate the reinforcement cage by the robots, and (ii) the end product is the final reinforcement cage, ready for installation in the form for the concrete structure. In this paper, we propose an algorithm to automatically compute a feasible installation order for a generic rebar cage. The feasibility of the generated order is also case studied and simulated on a simplified rebar cage under the given assumptions.
Unlike what is common in the traditional manufacturing industry, the structures in the construction industry are often one of a kind. The goal of this work is to provide a real-world compatible fully automated gantry-robot system for flexible serial production of custom-made reinforcement cages. This can lead to increased efficiency, productivity, and sustainability, not to mention the positive impact on labour safety as well as decreased environmental impact. In this paper, we present a solution utilizing three industrial robots mounted on a gantry structure for automatic generation of robot paths for moving, placing, and tying rebars. Moreover, we present how a 3D BIM-model of a rebar cage, along with installation instructions such as the order in which the bars should be installed, are transferred into CoppeliaSim. This proof-of-concept implementation is an important milestone indicating the feasibility of our proposed robotic solution for the automated fabrication of one-of-a-kind reinforcement cages.
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.
Despite the significant development of automation in the manufacturing industry, the construction industry has not yet comparably gained much from automated processes. Fabrication of reinforcement rebar cages is one good example where automation has a limited application. Several challenges have to be tackled to introduce and take advantage of the automatic fabrication of reinforcement rebar cages. One important challenge is how and in what order the rebars should be installed one after another so that the fabrication of a reinforcement rebar cage is feasible. In this paper, we present our ongoing work towards proposing a method that gives a solution to finding the installation order of rebars.