Industry 4.0- Robot Technologies to Build Brick Walls

Introduction

In modern times, a new trend has led the construction industry towards automation by integrating new technologies and substituting site operations with more secure and efficient ones in terms of cost, time, and quality. The construction industry has a large number of accidents as about 9% of total work accidents in France and 60% of construction workers who experience an accident at work are unable to return to work again. The Robotic Mechanical Design develops a framework for automating the laying of bricks. This automation has been a social dimension since it improves the working conditions of traditional masons and prevents potential health risks and discomfort. It similarly decreases waste on the building site by removing the risk of breakage of concrete blocks and loss of cement during the construction of the walls.

Description

Robotics is viewed as one potential solution to improve the construction industry efficiency. Robotics deals process automation and dependability thanks to sensors technologies. The absence of robotics in civil engineering could be linked to product features and complexity. It may be project size, lifetime and uniqueness, versatile construction environments and the weak capital budgets in R&D. Also the unwillingness of plans connected to construction automation. Other research studies assessed the potential use of robots in construction, onshore oil and gas industry, bridge construction.

Industrialization is moreover permitted thanks to robotics and automation. According to Richard (2005), industrialization is based on quantity. The author presented five levels of industrialization:

• Prefabrication,
• Mechanization
• Automation,
• Robotics and finally
• Reproduction.

The method contains of reorganization the construction product components to make modularization more attainable.

Masonry robots

The present research focuses on the masonry work. The second has been a field of investigation for a number of research projects. Masonry work is one of the most difficult jobs in construction since it includes a mason standing, kneeling and lifting. Furthermore, the mason works almost wholly outside and undergoes the weather conditions. The mason sometimes works in height scaffolding or in trenched soils which may put his life in hazard. The newest technologies for masonry labor automation that came out newly concern:

• The Australian "Hadrian X" ROBOT (Pivac & Pivac, 2016) that closely looks like to a truck crane. The robot is accomplished of laying the bricks with a high accuracy thanks to a laser guidance system. It is also capable to do job on nearly any block size. The benefit of such a design is the flexibility in motion. The robot may do work under challenging conditions related to the environment.
• SAM100 (Semi-Automated Mason): This robot positively delivered the prototyping phase and is now commercially available. This robot is definitely the most complete masonry robot recognized until now. It may lay bricks with accuracy and comprises the binder in the process of lying as well. SAM100 is accomplished of laying 800–1.200 bricks a day. The robot executes in a straight line with a limited height capacity. SAM100 costs around 500.000$ (442.030 €).

Industry 4.0- Robot Technologies to Build Brick Walls

Find the link of YouTube video: https://youtu.be/EGBRA24qlEg

This video shows the technologies & robots available now to lay bricks in civil buildings & do those brick laying jobs which can be dangerous for human’s viz-a-vis human safety!!! Amazing technologies of Industry 4.0.

Mansoor Ahmed Chemical Engineer,Web developer