Tag: <span>robotics</span>

Tag: robotics

Slip on a steep roof leads inventor to build remote inspection robot

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By Karen L. Edwards, RT3.

When Mike Slawinski was living in Atlanta, a friend of his asked him to help do some roof inspections. Mike wasn’t a fan of heights but agreed to help. They were in a subdivision that featured multimillion-dollar, large homes with very steep roofs.

“I got up on the front of the house and went over to back side, which was four stories because it was a drop-off lot, and I started sliding down the roof,” Mike explained. “In my mind I got to two feet from the edge and there was a concrete patio down below. In reality, I was probably more like 20 feet from the edge. I scrambled over to a valley and got off that roof, swearing I’d never get on another roof again.”

Being an inventor and innovator, Mike decided to try out some tools and technologies that he might be able to use for completing roof inspections from the ground. Nothing he tried worked so he found a partner to do the coding and created the Roof Rover, a robotic roof inspection device. The first model that they developed was bulky, weighing 25 pounds and wasn’t easy to get on the roof. He waited a few years and as technology improved, he developed the model that is available today.

The new robot weighs six pounds and is equipped with sensors and two cameras – one is very high-resolution inspection camera and another camera is used for driving. “The way you use the robot is typically by just moving the cameras around,” said Mike. “The cameras move and record from up to 60 – 80 feet away, so you just move the cameras and scan the surfaces. If I see anything of interest, I can drive over there and take a closer look.”

The robot is equipped with lasers that can measure within one millimeter or less than the thickness of a penny. It can measure thickness of shingles and even distinguish between a blister and hail dent. An accelerometer measures pitch and roll of the roof and the optical encoders allow for measurements while driving within a fraction of an inch. Edge detection sensors keep it from rolling off the edge of the roof.

“It has a surface temperature gauge on the bottom, and I can tell you that when I was using it in Atlanta, we recorded two temperatures of 250 degree on the roof,” explained Mike.

The Rover uses a 22-foot telescoping pole that raises it to the roof. A platform attaches to the gutter allowing the robot to drive on and off the roof. The rover is operated using a windows tablet and a joystick and a 40-square roof can be inspected in less than 20 minutes.

The robot requires little to no maintenance. The treads will need to be replaced every three to four months and it’s a good idea to keep a second rechargeable battery on hand so they can be swapped out. The Roof Rover includes the Windows tablet and controller and is easy to learn how to use – just watch a 15-minute video and the operator is ready to begin inspecting.

This is an excellent example of introducing technology onto the rooftop that doesn’t replace a worker, it just changes what that worker does and keeps them safer.

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Robots might one day be driving your trucks

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By Karen L. Edwards.

There is a new robot in development that can turn any vehicle into a driverless one. IVObility, an Israeli startup is developing a robot that sits in the driver’s seat and literally drives the vehicle. It’s coming in the not-too-distant future with a 2020 launch planned for government and off-road commercial applications, with a consumer-market version in consideration.

This means that potentially in a few years, robots will become our drivers. The IVObility robot will work in any vehicle, it doesn’t have to be equipped with sensors or other self-driving technology. The company successfully develop an autonomous underwater vehicle that drives itself called the HydroCamel and is now turning its development efforts to cars and trucks that drive on land.

Whereas most autonomous vehicles remove the operations from the driver’s seat, this robot sits in it and ‘sees’ what a driver would see. It looks somewhat human, with a head containing sensors and arm and leg-like limbs to work the pedals and the steering wheel. By having the robot sitting in the seat driving, the vehicle doesn’t need to have LiDar, radar or other sensors mounted around the vehicle.

CEO Tzvika Goldner told Car and Driver that “IVObility aims to launch its driving robot by the middle of next year and intends to offer three versions: most will be fully autonomous, but some will offer more cost-effective semi-autonomous capability or remote-controlled operation.”

The company is initially focusing on off-road applications such as mining, agriculture, border patrol and security with a pilot being launch at an airport in Europe later this year. This plug-and-play style model might be the answer for cost effectively retrofitting existing vehicles into self-driving ones.

Some things to consider are if and when a consumer version is ready to hit the streets, how could that affect who we have driving trucks to jobsites and what impact would that have on insurance costs? While there is no mention of what a robot chauffeur would cost, there is potential for insurance or liability cost savings to offset or even pay for the robot.

Photo credit: IVObility

Construction company to use robotics to build renewable energy projects

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By Karen L. Edwards

Built Robotics, a company specializing in making robotic construction equipment, announced that it has partnered with construction firm Mortenson to use their earthmoving robotics on renewable projects like wind farms and solar. These types of projects then to be in remote areas that are far from traditional workforce centers, making labor an even bigger challenge than it already is.

According to Built Robotics, their “robotic equipment is able to shoulder some of the load by assisting with basic, repetitive tasks, freeing up human operators to focus on the more specific, complex and critical activities.”

Eric Sellman, Vice President and General Manager of the Civil Group at Mortenson, said in the announcement, “I see Built Robotics as the next generation of construction technology. Consistent with Mortenson’s history of ingenuity and innovation in construction, we are partnering with Built Robotics as they develop and deploy technology that enables autonomous heavy equipment operation. Mortenson and Built Robotics will work together with this technology on select renewable energy projects within our Wind and Solar groups. Our goal is to embrace the change that is happening in our industry to create value for our customers and opportunities for Mortenson and our team members.”

Sellman told Engineering News Record (ENR) that it’s a long-term agreement for the next few years to continue to expand the company’s deployment of autonomous equipment on renewable energy jobs. The company did its first project with Built Robotics in August of 2018, testing the equipment on wind farms in Kansas. Sellman said that the repetitive nature of some of the foundation work on these projects make them a good fit for autonomous equipment. ENR reported that the “machines us GPS tracking to remain within geo-fenced areas, and LIDAR provides collision avoidance and obstacle detection.”

Mortenson employees are excited to be implementing the technology. Molly Morgan, an equipment operator commented, “I’m excited about the potential for Built’s technology. Our top priority is safety — if the robot can work on steep slopes, or near unstable ground, or in challenging or risky situations, then we one-hundred percent should use it. And I’m excited to learn the new skills I’ll need to work with the technology.”

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Construction robotics market expected to reach $226 million by 2025

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By Karen L. Edwards.

Construction work has traditionally been a very labor-intensive job. Increasing speed and productivity meant adding additional workers. With the labor shortage, it’s not that simple anymore and the industry is being forced to look for alternative methods. One of those is robotics.

A new report released by market intelligence firm Tractica shows that a growing number of construction companies are incorporating robots to solve the challenges of increasing productivity, efficiency and profits without adding workers. The report forecasts that the growing interest in construction robotics will drive an increase in market revenue from $22.7 million in 2018 to $226 million by 2025.

It is forecast that more than 7,000 construction robots will be in use on sites to handle a variety of construction tasks and demolition work. The biggest use is estimated to be for robot assistants on construction sites, followed by infrastructure robots, structure robots and finishing robots.

Tractica Senior Analyst Glenn Sanders says, “At this early stage in the construction robotics industry, a few companies are offering products for sale or lease. The main categories that are currently available include robots for demolition, bricklaying, drilling, 3D printing, and rebar tying, plus a few exoskeletons and assistant robots for lifting loads.”
Sanders adds that midsize and major construction companies are beginning to adopt these robots to solve issues related to labor shortages, safety, speed, accuracy, and integration with building automation and building information modeling (BIM).

According to Construction Dive, in order to maintain high standards of craftsmanship, some companies are taking a ‘cobot’ approach where they use collaborative robots to work with crews instead of taking their place. The collaborative robots take on tasks that are simpler, redundant and repetitive, freeing up employees to focus on more skilled work.

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Report Says U.S. Not As Prepared As Other Countries for Automation

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A report from Swiss technology leader ABB says the U.S. is behind other countries regarding its readiness for an increasingly automated world, placing ninth on a ranking of 25 advanced economies, according to www.savannahnow.com.

Researchers graded the countries in three main categories: innovation environment, which included money spent on research and development; school policies, from early curriculums to lifelong learning programs; and public workforce development, such as government-led efforts to retrain workers.

The report showed South Korea, Singapore, Germany and Canada are better prepared for automation largely because of their education systems and labor policies. Although it was acknowledged no country is “genuinely ready” for the technological shift expected to happen during the next three decades, the U.S. was deemed especially underprepared.

Guido Jouret, ABB’s chief digital officer, specifically referenced the U.S. educational system, which pushes students toward two- or four-year degrees. Colleges can be slower to keep up with technological changes, and companies will want workers who can adapt to cutting-edge technological developments.

By contrast, Germany encourages technical training, with 60 percent of young adults in the country training as apprentices in manufacturing, IT, banking, construction and other fields compared with 5 percent of Americans.

The Chinese government is updating public education to prioritize creativity rather than acing standardized tests; economists say these efforts are meant to train children and young adults to value independent thinking over regurgitation, which is a trait robots can’t yet replicate.

“Take the Southwest Airlines pilot—she did a phenomenal job landing that plane,” Jouret said, referencing a recent engine explosion that grabbed international attention. “This is the thing we need people to be good at—how to cope with the unexpected.”

Although U.S. leaders have praised apprenticeships as a way to help prepare workers for an increasingly technological world, economists say the U.S. would benefit more from continuous learning.

In Singapore, citizens were given cash in “individual learning accounts” they can use to cover job training courses at any stage in their careers. In Germany, lawmakers have proposed “employment insurance,” which would help workers pay for upgrading their skills during their lives.

The U.S. scores higher on research-and-development spending, which involves the dollars that fund advancements, devoting 2.79 percent of gross domestic product to the effort, which places the country fourth behind South Korea (4.23 percent), Japan (3.28 percent) and Germany (2.88 percent).

Note: This article first appeared on the NRCA website and can be viewed here.

Four Key Tech Trends Revolutionizing Architectural Design and Construction

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By Peter Diamantis

From self-healing materials to 4D printing to artificial intelligent-driven design to robots, the construction and building industry is being drastically changed by technology.

If you could design any structure, free of all constraints, what would you envision? Put aside today’s architectural limits. What home would you dream up? Exponential technologies are converging and revolutionizing the way we design, build and inhabit everything. The global construction industry is projected to surpass $10 trillion in 2020, and the total U.S. housing stock alone grew to $31.8 trillion last year.

Both industries are ripe for massive disruption.

In this blog, I’ll be covering four key tech trends that are revolutionizing what is possible in architectural design and construction:

  1. Autonomous robot builders
  2. 3D and 4D printing
  3. New materials from unexpected sources
  4. Designs that adapt as you build

Let’s dive in.

New Materials Enter Construction

For thousands of years, we’ve been constrained by the construction materials of nature. We built bricks from naturally abundant clay and shale, used tree limbs as our rooftops and beams, and mastered incredible structures in ancient Rome with the use of cement. But construction materials are about to get a HUGE upgrade.

Here are the top three materials disrupting the future of construction:

  1. Upcycled Materials: Imagine if you could turn the world’s greatest waste products into their most essential building blocks.

Thanks to UCLA researchers at CO2NCRETE, we can already do this with carbon emissions.Today, concrete produces about 5% of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. But what if concrete could instead conserve greenhouse emissions? CO2NCRETE engineers capture carbon from smokestacks and combine it with lime to create a new type of cement. The lab’s 3D printers then shape the upcycled concrete to build entirely new structures. Once conquered at scale, upcycled concrete will turn a former polluter into a future conserver.

Want to print houses from dirt? No problem. The Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) can now turn any soil into a building material with three times the tensile strength of industrial clay. A massive breakthrough for developing regions, IAAC’s new 3D printed native soil can build houses on-site for as little as $1,000.

  1. Nanomaterials: Nano- and micro-materials are ushering in a new era of smart, super-strong and self-charging buildings.

While carbon nanotubes dramatically increase the strength-to-weight ratio of skyscrapers, revolutionizing their structural flexibility, nanomaterials don’t stop here. Several research teams are pioneering silicon nanoparticles to capture everyday light flowing through our windows. Little solar cells at the edges of windows then harvest this energy for ready use. (Thermochromic smart windows change color when exposed to sunlight.)

Researchers at the U.S. National Renewable Energy Lab have developed similar smart windows. Turning into solar panels when bathed in sunlight, these thermochromic windows will power our buildings, changing color as they do.

  1. Self-Healing Infrastructure: The U.S. Department of Transportation estimates a $542.6 billion backlog needed for U.S. infrastructure repairsalone. And as I’ve often said, the world’s most expensive problems are the world’s most profitable opportunities.

Enter self-healing concrete. Engineers at Delft University have developed bio-concrete that can repair its own cracks. As head researcher Henk Jonkers explains, “What makes these limestone-producing bacteria so special is that they are able to survive in concrete for more than 200 years and come into play when the concrete is damaged. […] If cracks appear as a result of pressure on the concrete, the concrete will heal these cracks itself.”

But bio-concrete is only the beginning of self-healing technologies. As futurist architecture firms start printing plastic and carbon-fiber houses like the stunner seen below (using Branch Technologies’ 3D printing technology), engineers are tackling self-healing plastic.

WATG Designs 3D-Printed Freeform House with Carbon-Fiber Reinforced Plastic

Plastic not only holds promise in real estate on Earth, it will also serve as a handy material in space. NASA engineers have pioneered a self-healing plastic that may prove vital in space missions, preventing habitat and ship ruptures in record speed.

The implications of self-healing materials are staggering, offering us resilient structures both on earth and in space.

Enhanced Design & Architecture

While incredible new materials transform what we build, AI and VR are revolutionizing how we design.

  1. AI-Driven Design: In the past, if you wanted to build a high-rise, you needed a static, precise blueprint. Moving parts were not an option.

Now, real-time, AI-aided Building Information Model (BIM) will enable blueprints to learn and adapt to changing ground conditions, weather, equipment and even new design ideas.

In the future, AI will help design our blueprints, optimizing construction methods, breakthrough materials, and design features. It may even recommend IoT components for our high-rises depending on their purpose and landscape.

  1. Virtual Reality Shaping Real Estate: In one of my previous blogs, I discussed how VR will reshape our real estate shopping experience. Forget real estate agents and physical house hunting. Why not visit a house in a different city from the comfort of your living room at 3 a.m. and see how it looks with blue walls and your own home furniture?

VR is about to transform the real estate design process too. Imagine the possibilities: you design your company’s dream office using a Building Information Model and allow your managers to walk around the (virtually) finished product before it’s ever built.

Build with Robots and 3D Printing

Designs and machinery won’t build us finished products on their own… or will they? Welcome to the new frontier of autonomous robot builders and skyscraper printers.

  1. Autonomous Robotics and Robot Swarm Construction: While robots have already started permeating the construction industry, what if they could construct buildings entirely autonomously?

Many are already tackling this challenge, using everything from flying robots to termite-like swarm constructors.

RoboticsX aims to send autonomous robot builders to Mars that can adapt to shifting ground conditions. CEO Peter Boras spoke of plans to scale up 3,000 collaborating robots in the hopes of building structures almost entirely unaided. The company’s X-1 Smart Industrial Robot can already collaborate with its colleagues, adapt tasks in real time, share its capabilities with other machines and perform predictive maintenance.

A team at Switzerland’s NCCR Digital Fabrication has also built a fabricator robot. Pre-programmed with design model data, the robot can build any steel-reinforced framework autonomously on-site.

Inspired by autonomously collaborative termites, Harvard robotics researchers developed swarm construction robots that can collaboratively build a programmed design, block-by-block, without centralized control.

Imagine the implications. Eliminating human safety concerns and unlocking any environment, autonomous builder robots could collaboratively build massive structures in space, or deep underwater habitats.

  1. 3D and 4D Printing: In one of the developments I’m most excited about, we will soon be printing tomorrow’s structures. 3D and 4D printing are redefining the way our buildings look, feel and even move.

You may have heard of the Chinese company WinSun Design Engineering Co., which printed 10 houses from recycled materials in 24 hours at a cost of about $4,800 each.

Or Dutch studio DUS Architects, who used sustainable bioplastic to 3D print a full-sized canal house in Amsterdam.

But architectural printing is only getting started.

While companies like INNOprint can print an emergency shelter in only half an hour, others are finding ways to print unprecedented designs, like this never-ending looped house, buildable with one massive robotic 3D printer.

Janjaap Ruijssenaars 3D prints prototype of house with no beginning or end

And now for the real kicker: Remember those magical moving staircases in the Harry Potter films? Turns out these may no longer be exclusive to the wizarding world.

4D printing will one day make such structures a reality. Born out of MIT’s Self-Assembly Lab, 4D printing involves 3D printed objects that can reshape and even self-assemble over time.

These structures involve 3D printing rigid and expandable materials alongside one another. When the expandable materials encounter certain conditions, like water or heat, they reshape and reposition other rigid parts of the structure.

As a result, 4D printed structures have moving joints that can reshape the entire component, whether into different shapes or stairwell directions.

Final Thoughts

With the convergence of autonomous builder robots, 3D and 4D printing, AI-guided design and unprecedented smart materials, we are about to witness the mass disruption of construction and real estate.

What new architectural frontiers will you unlock? How will your company design and print the future? What homes and space colonies will we inhabit?

Join Me

  1. A360 Executive Mastermind: This is the sort of conversation I explore at my Executive Mastermind group called Abundance 360. The program is highly selective, for 360 abundance and exponentially minded CEOs (running $10M to $10B companies). If you’d like to be considered, apply here.

Share this with your friends, especially if they are interested in any of the areas outlined above.

  1. Abundance-Digital Online Community: I’ve also created a Digital/Online community of bold, abundance-minded entrepreneurs called Abundance-Digital.

Abundance-Digital is my ‘on-ramp’ for exponential entrepreneurs – those who want to get involved and play at a higher level. Click here to learn more.

Note: This article was first received via email from Peter Diamantis.