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Friday, March 29, 2024

The mobile robot will revolutionize the construction industry. “The Next Generation Builder Is Coming”

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There is no turning back from robotics, say labor market experts. In their opinion, robots in many companies are a modern solution that also allows them to fill numerous and previously unfilled vacancies. Robots will revolutionize other industries. Their prototypes have already appeared in trade and on construction sites.

Over the weekend, a mobile robot began working in one of the investment projects in Krakow. The machine helps move heavy objects, drills holes in walls, paints rooms and sprays floor insulation. This robot will support, but will not replace a person. I can say this with full responsibility. Construction work using this technique will be “next generation” construction, says a Budimex representative.

Dariusz Brzostek, Wprost.pl: Where did the idea of ​​designing and manufacturing a robot come from?

Marek Klusek, Director of Guarantees, Innovations and Contractual Conditions at Budimex: Of necessity. Firstly, we have fewer and fewer workers on construction sites, and we constantly need workers. Secondly, our society is aging, and since we are socially sensitive, we want both safety and security. The idea is to support a person interacting with a robot on a construction site. The machine will help workers carry heavy objects, and if necessary, replace people at a construction site at night doing monotonous work, for example, drilling holes in walls. Thanks to this, he will prepare the work front for the next day so that employees can continue further work.

What can the robot already do? What are his main tasks at a construction site?

The machine can drill holes in the wall. He does an excellent job of moving heavy objects with another employee. He carries a load weighing 20 kilograms on his shoulder, and the employee carries the same amount. The robot can also paint rooms or spray insulation on floors. His skills were still being tested in the laboratory.

Now he is undergoing a working baptism on the battlefield, at our construction site, in real conditions, where there is a lot of dust and changeable conditions. It will operate under these target conditions every day, so we want to make sure that it will complete the task assigned to it. The robot is based on optical sensors, cameras and lidar. We’re testing how it copes with these conditions, and so far it’s coping well.

What plans does the company have for the robot after completion of testing on the construction site?

There will definitely be a continuation, i.e. development of his skills, optimization of work speed and the entire service process. And I would really like it to become a permanent element of our construction projects.

Once we have completed testing, the robot will be efficient enough to be used on many construction sites, taking it in a completely different direction than it is today. However, everything will depend on the efficiency that the robot can achieve and the size of the building in which we want to use such machines.

Here, on the hospital construction site in Krakow, we have a small room. The volume that surrounds us on this floor is about 500 sq.m. If the assumptions included in the project are realized, this robot will service this room independently. If we wanted to multiply the effect, we could place four or five of these robots here, and they would easily cope with the tasks without interfering with each other.

Today, a robot can perform several actions. How many missing vacancies can one machine fill?

We cannot yet give an exact answer to this question. Everything will depend on the maximum efficiency that the robot achieves. Today I would guess that one robot is equivalent to one person on a construction site, but this is a very conservative estimate. I think that we will soon achieve a coefficient of 1.5 or 2, that is, one robot will replace two people on a construction site and its efficiency will be the same.

However, this is still to come. We will only make a final decision when we collect all the information after today’s tests, check what they came up with, what else we can get from this robot, what efficiency it can achieve, and therefore how many people can fill the gaps that we can fill in. we are experiencing today.

A robot can perform many more tasks. Does the company plan to load other software onto the machine?

That’s the plan. This is the direction after this project that we want to set with our partners, with whom we work together and with whom we work very well, and we have a very positive effect from the cooperation of science and business. We want to complete our Concert project by the middle of next year. We reached a much higher level of development for the product we were supposed to create. I think we will still pass one point and be close to the final level of commercialization.

How is this robot different from others?

This robot is unique in that it is mobile. Robots in car factories can do complex and complex things, but they do them stationary. Our robot is a mobile platform and also moves in difficult environments where there is a lot of dust, variable humidity and is subject to falling debris. He must be immune to this.

A robot is a good solution when it comes to missing vacancies. Builders are wondering if a mobile machine can replace humans?

This is not the goal of our project. This robot will not replace a person. I can say this with full responsibility. However, when asked whether robots will ever replace people, some futurologists answer in the affirmative. I personally don’t believe this or am repulsed by the idea that we will ever be replaced by robots. This robot is designed to collaborate with humans and fill staff shortages. His idea, as the name suggests, is a robot interacting with a human.

How much does an hour of robot work cost?

We don’t know this yet, everything is still ahead. Hourly rates are a thing of the future. He is currently undergoing an internship at our company. Today we are focused on answering the question of whether we can even create such a robot, and in a relatively short time we know that we can. The project was initiated in 2021 and was ready in the form in which it is now in the spring of this year, when it underwent laboratory tests. That’s pretty fast for robotics.

Does a robot need constant human supervision?

The machine still needs constant cooperation with a person, for example, loading a construction project in three dimensions, where after receiving this data the robot can accurately carry out tasks, for example, it receives instructions from us: to make a series of holes for a steel structure on which facade cladding in the future will be installing or painting the room. In this aspect, it still requires human supervision or care, but the robot also has its own battery, which lasts for 8-10 hours of battery life.

After this time, it is necessary to either replace the battery with a charged one or recharge the battery, so in this case, service or human assistance is required. However, a ten-hour operating time on a single charge is quite enough to complete one stage or one shift at work.

Foreign exhibitors did not hide their praise for this prototype. Did you have any competitors at international fairs?

The robot sets us apart from others. We presented this robot at the robotics exhibition in Munich, which is one of the largest robotics exhibitions in the world. And this robot builder of ours was the only robot we met. There were no other construction proposals, especially when they actually came from the builders.

We feel a very strong connection to this project, but at the moment it is virgin territory that needs to be developed. Work on construction sites, robots that can move independently and perform work autonomously – this is a whole area that needs to be developed. I am proud of this project and believe that at the moment we are unique.

Will the mobile machine revolutionize the construction industry in the near future?

This is the purpose of updating these robots. Generally speaking, we cannot avoid the new. Modern forms of construction work mean that construction is not quite the traditional industry that some perceive it to be. I absolutely disagree with the idea that construction is conservative. This is a very innovative industry with many modern solutions both in terms of materials and working methods, but robotics is on a completely different level. Automation and autonomy are the next level in robotics. Construction using this equipment will be “next generation” construction.

The robot will replace employees, taking on complex and monotonous work. Will his work help improve safety on construction sites?

Many industries will use this form of human support rather than replace us, because there are many activities around us that are boring, monotonous and, as a result, have a negative impact on people and work safety. A robot can replace us and free us from such monotonous activities, which in turn will also improve the safety of our construction sites.

Everyone is focused on doing things better, more efficiently and safer, but they are also faced with the fact that we have a demographic problem as a country. There are too few such workers on the market and every company will look for effective solutions to fill vacancies. And this is one of those innovative ideas.

Author: Dariusz Brzostek
Source: WPROST.pl
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Source: Wprost

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