ROBÉTARMÉ

According to the World Economic Forum, the construction industry currently accounts for around 6% of global GDP and is expected to reach around 14.7% by 2030, showing that the construction sector plays a key role in any country’s economy. The importance of building automation has grown significantly in recent years worldwide with the aim of driving new autonomously executed tasks (inspection or maintenance, for example) in roads, tunnels, bridges, buildings or underground works. This need is mainly driven by labour shortages, the aging of many infrastructures or rising costs.

To achieve the desired level of automation, equivalent to Industry 4.0, cutting-edge technologies such as sensors, augmented reality systems, high-performance computing, additive manufacturing, advanced materials, autonomous robots or simulation systems have been adapted to construction applications. This transformation has been called Construction 4.0.

RoBétArmé aims towards a step change in the Construction 4.0 by automating particularly laborious construction tasks in all phases of shotcrete application. To this end, RoBétArmé will deliver collaborative construction mobile manipulators to address fast, high precision modeling and rebar reinforcement through metal additive manufacturing, autonomous shotcrete application and surface finishing.

Geotechnical monitoring, data from high-resolution vision sensors and high-speed computing technologies will automate the modeling and fast reconstruction of the surface to be shotcreted. Prior and in-situ digitalization methods will provide real-time feedback to the construction robot improving the efficiency and quality of concrete spray casting, while reducing waste in construction. In all phases, RoBétArmé will provide a Digital Twin and advanced simulation tools tailored to the BIM/CIM models for the fast and greener implementation of the automated construction activities.

ROBOTNIK IN THE PROJECT

Robotnik’s main role in Robetarme is to provide a mobile robot to perform Construction 4.0 tasks. For this purpose, Robotnik will adapt one of its mobile platforms to perform payload transport tasks such as robotic arms or sensors, among others. These tasks are necessary to execute inspection, reinforcement, concreting and finishing operations.

The key requirement of the mobile platform is to withstand the harsh climatic conditions such as heat, humidity, dirt and uneven terrain of a construction site, while maintaining safe operation.

In addition, Robotnik manages the integration, pilot deployment and evaluation work package.