The construction industry is one of the driving forces of the EU economy. When compared to other manufacturing sectors, the construction industry has traditionally been characterised by a high diversity of its stakeholders and production processes, as well as a high resistance to innovation and a limited integration technology. Most of the production processes in the construction industry are traditionally manual or artisanal in nature, organised with simple management tools that lack technology integration. The absence of automation determines a much lower productivity when compared with other industries. Meanwhile, other sectors like the automotive and aeronautical industries are shifting to a new paradigm called “Industry 4.0”, which introduces automation, monitoring, sensorisation, robotisation and digitalisation to the production processes with the goal of increasing productivity. Although at a much lower pace, the construction industry is also moving towards its own paradigm declination, called “Construction 4.0”, which is based on a digital interconnection and automation of the whole manufacturing process. Few advancements have been made in bringing automation to the construction industry, most of which focused on the fabrication of simple elements. The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate how robotics and automation can be integrated both on-site and off-site by developing innovative fabrication processes and digital workflows. The author collaborated with Indexlab, a research laboratory of Politecnico di Milano, for the development of four unique robotic fabrication processes, each focused on a different type of construction element. A practical experimentation has been performed for each fabrication process, which highlights the inner workings of the system and resulted in the production of several mock-ups. The results of experiments show that the proposed digital workflow can successfully control robotic cells in order to perform completely different tasks. It is also shown that by equipping industrial and collaborative robots with custom end-effectors it is possible to manufacture various construction products, such as: lightweight shadings, free-form cladding elements, complex-shaped prefabricated panels, variable aluminium frames and free-form concrete elements. This study paves the way to the development of modular robotic cells characterised by a limited number of manipulators and a great variety of different tools in order to perform fabrication operations effectively, off-site or on-site.
L'industria delle costruzioni è una delle forze trainanti dell'economia europea. Rispetto all’industria manifatturiera, il settore delle costruzioni è stato tradizionalmente caratterizzato dalla grande diversità di stakeholders e processi, oltre ad un’elevata resistenza al cambiamento e una ridotta integrazione tecnologica. Nell’industria delle costruzioni, la maggior parte dei processi di fabbricazione sono tradizionalmente manuali o artigianali, organizzati con semplici strumenti di gestione e con un basso livello di integrazione tecnologica. Questa mancanza di automazione determina una produttività molto più bassa rispetto ad altri settori. Durante l’ultimo decennio, industrie come quella automobilistica e aeronautica hanno adottato un nuovo paradigma chiamato "industria 4.0", che mira a migliorare i processi di produzione attraverso l'automazione, il monitoraggio, la sensorizzazione e l’introduzione di isole robotizzate. Seppur ad un ritmo nettamente inferiore, anche l’industria delle costruzioni ha sviluppato una propria declinazione del paradigma, chiamata "Costruzioni 4.0", basata sull'interconnessione digitale e sull'automazione dell’intero processo costruttivo. Tuttavia, finora, i progressi nell’automatizzazione dell’industria delle costruzioni sono insufficienti, perlopiù limitati alla fabbricazione di elementi semplici. Lo scopo di questo lavoro di tesi è dimostrare la possibilità di sviluppare flussi di lavoro digitali e sistemi costruttivi innovativi in grado di portare la robotica e l’automazione sia in ambiente di prefabbricazione, sia in cantiere. A tal fine, l'autore ha collaborato con il laboratorio Indexlab del Politecnico di Milano per lo sviluppo di quattro processi di fabbricazione robotica, ognuno dei quali focalizzato su un diverso tipo di elemento costruttivo. Per ogni processo di fabbricazione è stata effettuata una sperimentazione pratica che ha dimostrato il funzionamento del sistema e ha portato alla produzione di diversi mock-up. I risultati delle sperimentazioni mostrano che il flusso di lavoro digitale proposto può controllare con successo i sistemi robotici, riuscendo ad eseguire operazioni completamente diverse tra loro. È stato anche dimostrato che, dotando robot industriali e collaborativi di strumenti personalizzati, è possibile realizzare diversi elementi costruttivi, tra cui schermature solari leggere, elementi di rivestimento free-form, pannelli prefabbricati di forma complessa, telai a geometria variabile in alluminio ed elementi alleggeriti in calcestruzzo di forma libera. Questo studio apre la strada allo sviluppo di isole robotizzate modulari che si basano su un numero limitato di robot e su una grande varietà di strumenti che consentono di eseguire con flessibilità, velocità e precisione, operazioni di fabbricazione “off-site” - in fabbrica - o direttamente “on-site” - in cantiere.
Construction 4.0. A comprehensive theoretical and experimental study on automation and robotics for the construction industry
Caso, Marco
2019/2020
Abstract
The construction industry is one of the driving forces of the EU economy. When compared to other manufacturing sectors, the construction industry has traditionally been characterised by a high diversity of its stakeholders and production processes, as well as a high resistance to innovation and a limited integration technology. Most of the production processes in the construction industry are traditionally manual or artisanal in nature, organised with simple management tools that lack technology integration. The absence of automation determines a much lower productivity when compared with other industries. Meanwhile, other sectors like the automotive and aeronautical industries are shifting to a new paradigm called “Industry 4.0”, which introduces automation, monitoring, sensorisation, robotisation and digitalisation to the production processes with the goal of increasing productivity. Although at a much lower pace, the construction industry is also moving towards its own paradigm declination, called “Construction 4.0”, which is based on a digital interconnection and automation of the whole manufacturing process. Few advancements have been made in bringing automation to the construction industry, most of which focused on the fabrication of simple elements. The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate how robotics and automation can be integrated both on-site and off-site by developing innovative fabrication processes and digital workflows. The author collaborated with Indexlab, a research laboratory of Politecnico di Milano, for the development of four unique robotic fabrication processes, each focused on a different type of construction element. A practical experimentation has been performed for each fabrication process, which highlights the inner workings of the system and resulted in the production of several mock-ups. The results of experiments show that the proposed digital workflow can successfully control robotic cells in order to perform completely different tasks. It is also shown that by equipping industrial and collaborative robots with custom end-effectors it is possible to manufacture various construction products, such as: lightweight shadings, free-form cladding elements, complex-shaped prefabricated panels, variable aluminium frames and free-form concrete elements. This study paves the way to the development of modular robotic cells characterised by a limited number of manipulators and a great variety of different tools in order to perform fabrication operations effectively, off-site or on-site.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/169388