humble3d Posted October 23, 2015 Share Posted October 23, 2015 Dawn of the robot construction worker... Humans NEED NOT apply Zurich-based architects and roboticists have created the In-situ Fabricator, an autonomous construction robot capable of laying bricks into pre-programmed structures. Designers at the Swiss National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) Digital Fabrication laboratory believe a future generation of the robot could be used widely on building sites. Matthias Kohler, of ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich), is one of the supervising professors on the research team. According to Kohler, who is also an architect, it is "the first machine that can actually go on construction sites and build non-standard designs, meaning designs which can vary and adapt to the local conditions directly in the building site." Professor Jonas Buchli supervises the research. He told Reuters that construction sites are fascinating to roboticists. "The construction site for us, as a robotics researcher, is an interesting environment because it somewhere in between the completely planned and controlled environment of a factory or a lab floor, and the completely chaotic environment of outdoors, so it's kind of a semi-structured environment where we can test and develop the technology that is required for robots to move around and do useful things in such environments," said Buchli. The robot is an industrial arm on a mobile base and is designed to be self-contained, without the need for external localization systems. Its 2D laser range finder, in conjunction with computer algorithms, help build up a 3D map of a site linked to structural plans. The map allows the robot to know its location at all times and move around a construction site unaided. It can also adapt autonomously to minor design variations. "We have a series of sensors that we have already mounted and that we will mount on the robot," said Buchli. "There are several sensors mounted on the robot which can measure the distance. We will mount cameras. There is an IMU (inertial measurement unit) - this is a device that can measure the orientation of the robot in space, and with fusing all this information together for the robot to know where it is in space." There are also two computers on board the robot, Buchli told Reuters. "One for the arm and one for the overall robot and on these computers we online calculate the required information for the robot to move and know where it is." Kohler says a robot builder would have multiple benefits, not least in terms of reducing the planning time required before building begins. "The benefit from an architectural point of view is that you can really design the construction directly, so you can plan for how it is built instead of designing your plan and then that plan afterwards being converted on the construction site. So it actually changes the paradigm of how you design and build quite fundamentally," said Kohler. Human construction workers might be horrified by the idea of a robot performing the same job better, but Kohler insists there is no need for their alarm. "I think this will become a game-changer in construction, I believe so. I think that in the next five to ten years we are going to see mobile robots on the construction site, but they're not going to replace humans. They'll actually collaborate with humans, so the best of each kind of skills come together," he said. NCCR Digital Fabrication is working on a range of radical projects inside its ETH Zurich premises on the Science City campus. One program involves robotic aggregations of materials with unpredictable geometry, in which random pieces of rubble can be measured by robot and structured to fit together to make a complete standing structure. Another project garnering interest is Mesh Mould, a digitally-controlled, 3D printed, extrusion process in which robotically fabricated reinforcement meshes can be filled with concrete, eliminating the need for formwork. A new state-of-the art robotic fabrication laboratory that will allow them to expand is under construction and due to open in September 2016.http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/21/us-switzerland-robotbuilder-idUSKCN0SF1BU20151021 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CODYQX4 Posted October 23, 2015 Share Posted October 23, 2015 Notice how quick they always say no need for alarm? That's a good sign they know they're going to take all the jobs.Just wait until 95% of world population is unemployed, and I mean literally, not BS statistics that fudge the numbers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SB7 Posted October 24, 2015 Share Posted October 24, 2015 Yup... they'll collaborate along side the one or two humans on site put there to prevent vandalism to the robots .... of course it begs the question, if everyone is replaced with a robot, who will they be building buildings for ? and exactly who will be able to pay for them...oh right, the buildings will be shelters , or internment camps for all the starving, unemployed ,rioters... soylent green is people .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CODYQX4 Posted October 25, 2015 Share Posted October 25, 2015 Yup... they'll collaborate along side the one or two humans on site put there to prevent vandalism to the robots .... of course it begs the question, if everyone is replaced with a robot, who will they be building buildings for ? and exactly who will be able to pay for them...oh right, the buildings will be shelters , or internment camps for all the starving, unemployed ,rioters... soylent green is people ....If nobody has a job, who's going to buy all the China crap that comes out? Robots don't need it.I could see them having robots that build robots, that serve them, and us peasants are left to die and kept at a distance, or killed outright. Good luck getting to a private island to attempt revenge.All while the population will be over 12 billion in time. Either we invent magic to make the shell game last longer or society burns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbleck Posted October 25, 2015 Share Posted October 25, 2015 it'll not be cost effective for a long time... one thing is good though... workers will have a bigger income as they'll ask for at least the same amount of money as the automatic one :P boss: why isn't this done already? human worker: the new guy was sleeping all day... i can't do all the work by myself... metal worker: f**k u!... that's it... u guys will soon need an island! :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.