Robotic platform for cyber-physical assembly

The aim of project RP 16 of the Cluster of Excellence EXC IntCDC is partly automating the assembly of form-fit timber buildings. Placing building elements automatically is a complex task, which involves many difficulties. In order not to damage the building element or the building during assembly, precise positioning is essential. Different sensor data have to be fused to gain a precise position estimation. Robotic total station networks (RTS) can provide sub-millimeter precision in real-time, but have to overcome the challenge of the unstructured environment of the construction site where people and objects move and can cover the reflectors and measurement points

For automatically reaching the end effector target poses, the generated trajectory transforms the absolute pose errors to desired joint velocities, which are then transformed to input signals for the hydraulics. The large-scale hydraulic manipulator can reach desired poses with an accuracy in the sub-centimeter range.

To perform non-routine assembly tasks, a wearable haptic interface is developed  for human operators such that the robotic boom manipulator follows the operator's movements. Additionally, haptic feedback shall be provided to the operator to prevent damaging the building and the building parts.

Beyond autonomous single-robot work and raw teleoperation control modes machine-machine collaborations are investigated:

• one robotic boom manipulator and a tower crane (collaboration with RP 8: support the crane from below to seamlessly place a building element into a defined position)
• two robotic boom manipulators

For achieving all these different tasks, we collaborate with RP 16 members from IIGS and MPI-IS as well as the other Cluster of Excellence IntCDC research projects at ISYS.