Robotics

ROBOTICS AND
CONSTRUCTION
DR K M SONI
CHIEF ENGINEER, WZI, CPWD, MUMBAI

Robot
 A robot is a
mechanical or
virtual agent,
usually an
electro-
mechanical
machine that is
guided by a
computer
program or
electronic
circuitry. A welding Robot
(en.wikipedia.org)

TYPE OF ROBOTS
 Autonomous
 Semi autonomous
 Humanoids
 Industrial
 Swarm
 Nano
(www.emaze.com)

Autonomous Robots
 Robots that can perform with a high
degree of, autonomy which is
particularly desirable in fields such as
space exploration , cleaning floors,
mowing lawns etc.
A fully autonomous robot has the ability
to
 Gain information about the
environment (Rule #1)
 Work for an extended period without
human intervention (Rule #2)
 Move either all or part of itself
throughout its operating environment
without human assistance (Rule #3).
 Avoid situations that are harmful to
people, property, or itself unless those
are part of its design specifications
(Rule #4)
(en.wikipedia.org)

INDUSTRIAL ROBOT
 An industrial robot is
defined by as an
automatically
controlled,
reprogrammable,
multipurpose
manipulator
programmable in three
or more axes.
 Typical applications of
robots include welding
, painting, assembly,
pick and place (such as
packaging, palletizing),
product inspection,
and testing.
(en.wikipedia.org)

SWARM ROBOTS
 Coordination of
multi-robot systems
which consist of
large numbers of
mostly simple
physical robots. It is
supposed that a
desired collective
behaviour emerges
from the interactions
between the robots
and interactions of
robots with the
environment
(en.wikipedia.org)

NANO ROBOTS
 Robots whose components
are at or close to the scale
of a nanometer (10−9meters).
 useful applications of
nanomachines might be in
medical technology, which
could be used to identify
and destroy cancer cells.
Another potential
application is the detection
of toxic chemicals, and the
measurement of their
concentrations, in the
environment
(www.spectrum.ieee.org)

TYPE OF ROBOTS BASED ON
MOBILITY
 FIXED
ROBOTS
 MOBILE
ROBOTS

TYPE OF ROBOTS
 MANUFATURING
ROBOTS
 SERVICE ROBOTS
◦ A service robot is a robot
which operates semi- or
fully autonomously to
perform services useful
to the well-being of
humans and equipment,
excluding manufacturing
operations.
(www.fujitsu.com)

TYPE OF ROBOTS BASED ON
APPLICATIONS
 FACTORY ROBOTS
 MILITARY ROBOTS
 HEALTHCARE ROBOTS
 RESEARCH ROBOTS
 ENTERTAINMENT
ROBOTS
 GENERAL PURPOSE
ROBOTS
 MINING ROBOTS
 DOMESTIC ROBOTS
 CONSTRUCTION ROBOTS
(www.igcseict.info)

CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN
ROBOTS
Mobility
Programmability
Sensors
Mechanical
capability and
Flexibility
(www.tms.org)

Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of
Robotics
 Law Zero: A robot may not injure
humanity, or, through inaction,
allow humanity to come to harm.
 First Law: A robot may not injure a
human being, or, through inaction,
allow a human being to come to
harm.
 Second Law: A robot must obey
orders given it by human beings,
except where such orders would
conflict with the First Law.
 Third Law: A robot must protect its
own existence as long as such
protection does not conflict with
the First or Second Law.

MAIN FEATURES OF ROBOTS
 Sensors: active and passive
optical and radar vision,
acoustic, ultrasonic, RF,
microwave, touch, etc.
 Effectors: propellers, wheels,
tracks, legs, hybrids
 Control system architecture:
deliberative, reactive, hybrid
 Command, control, and
communications systems: cable,
fiber optic, RF, laser, acoustic
 Human/machine interfaces:
displays, telepresence, virtual
reality
(www.jacobstoller31.blogspot.com)

AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRIAL ROBOTS
 In the automobile
industry, robotic arms
are used in diverse
manufacturing
processes including
assembly, spot welding,
arc welding, machine
tending, part transfer,
laser processing,
cutting, grinding,
polishing, testing,
painting and
dispensing. Robots
have proved to help
automakers to be more
agile, flexible and to
(www.news.frbiz.com)

 used in medicine because they are highly precision
machines. By tooling with surgical instruments, they
have been used in the field of robotic surgery to
perform closed-chest, beating-heart surgery. The first
generation of surgical robots aren't true autonomous
robots that can perform surgical tasks on their own,
but they are lending a mechanical helping hand to
surgeons. These machines still require a human
surgeon to operate them and input instructions.
Remote control and voice activation are the methods
by which these surgical robots are controlled.

Medical Robots
(lifemag.org)

Military Robots
 Military robots are capable of replacing humans to perform
many, if not most combat functions on the battlefield.
Military robots may look like vehicles, airplanes, insects or
animals or other objects in an attempt to camouflage or to
deceive the adversary. Remarkable success has been
achieved with unmanned aerial vehicles like the Predator
drone, which are capable of taking surveillance
photographs, and even accurately launching missiles at
ground targets, without a pilot. On the ground, robots have
been deployed as mine sweepers and for bomb disposal.
(enwikipedia.org)

MILITARY ROBOTICS
 Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws
are insufficient (especially for
military)
 A robot may not injure a
human being or, through
inaction, allow a human
being to come to harm
 A robot must obey orders
given it by human beings
except where such orders
would conflict with the First
Law
 A robot must protect its
own existence as long as
such protection does not
conflict with the First or
Second Law
(popularmechanics.com)

Space Robots
 Space robotics is
generally divided
into two main areas:
robotic manipulators
- such devices are
deployed in space or
on planetary
surfaces to emulate
human manipulation
capabilities, and
Robotic Rovers -
they are deployed on
planetary surfaces to
emulate human
mobility capabilities.
(www.nasa.gov)

Food & Beverage
 While food and beverage
applications represent a small
fraction of industrial robotics
installation, it is widely
recognized as one of the
fastest growing segments.
The vast majority of robots in
the Food & Beverage industry
are found in the packaging
area, with secondary
functions such as case
packing and palletizing
dominating. High-speed
Material Handling robotic
arms and vision-guided
systems are beginning to
work alongside and-in many
cases-instead of humans in
food factories.
(www.mariani-it.com)
(www.foodengineeringmag.com

Ship Building
 Unlike the automobile industry where the
use of robots is widespread, shipbuilding
is more of a 'one-of-a-type' production.
This makes efficient and cost-effective
robotic implementation extremely difficult
to achieve.

Construction Robots
 Construction robots aim to improve the efficiency of
work at construction sites. With proper planning and
development, robots are used in the applications like
inner pipe crawling, excavation, load transport, mining
and submersion, bricklaying, earth work,
foundation/steel-framework, prefabrication of
reinforcement, pavement work and many others.
Generally, where there are dangerous conditions or
accessibility and/or space limitations that persist,
robots will be used.
(www.nci.fi)

Aircraft & Aerospace
 Today, aircraft manufacturers are
seeking automated solutions,
spurred by the need to fabricate
high-performance weapon
systems at lower costs, apply lean
manufacturing concepts, and
achieve high quality. A range of
new automated and robotic
production tools and technologies
can be adapted to aircraft
fabrication processes and
methods. Painting, drilling, and
composite fabrication are the best
candidates for automation. Some
examples of the robotics system
using in the aerospace industry
are: Robotic coating system (e.g.
fuselage, airframe and
component) and robotic water-jet
coating removal.
(www.robots.com)

Industrial robot
 An industrial robot
is a
programmable,
multi-functional
manipulator
designed to move
materials, parts,
tools, or special
devices through
variable
programmed
motions for the
performance of a
variety of tasks.

Applications
• The general characteristics of industrial work
situations that tend to promote the substitution of
robots for human labor are the following:
1. Hazardous work environment for human.
2. Repetitive work cycle.
3. Difficult handling for human.
4. Multishift operation.

Joints and links
 A joint of an industrial robot is
similar to a joint in the human
body: It provides relative
motion between two parts of
the body.
• Connected to each joint are two
links, an input link and output
link.
• Links are the rigid components
of the robot manipulator.
• The purpose of the joint is to
provide controlled relative
movement between the input
link and the output link.
• A robot joints are actuated
using any of three possible
types of drive systems:
1. Electric drive.
2. Hydraulic drive.
3. Pneumatic drive

Common Robot Configuration
• A robot manipulator can be
divided into two sections:
 A Body-and-arm
assembly.
 Wrist assembly
• The body-and-arm of the robot
is used to position the end
effector, and the robot’s wrist is
used to orient the end effector.
• At the end of the manipulator’s
wrist is a device related to the
task that must be
accomplished by the robot.
The device, called an end
effector, is usually either:
1. A gripper for holding a
workpart, or
2. A tool for performing
some process

Tools
• Tools are used in
applications where the
robot must perform some
processing operation on
the part. Examples of the
tools are:
1. Spot welding gun.
2. Arc welding tool.
3. Spray painting gun.
4. Rotating spindle for
drilling, grinding, and
so forth.
5. Assembly tool (e.g.
automatic screw
driver)
6. Heating torch.
(spaziobelo.com.mx)

Construction Robots
 During the 90s the R&D activities in
the field of RAC were lead by Japan,
and were focused on the
development of new robotic systems
(most of them teleoperated) and in
the automation of existing
machinery. These robots tried to
automate several construction
processes in the house building and
the civil construction. These robots
were for interior building finishing,
brick layer masonry, modular
industrialized building’s
construction, road paver’s sensor-
based guidance, excavator’s control,
infrastructure inspection, tunnel and
bridge construction among others.
(sourceable.net)

Construction Robots
 In the group of civil infrastructure the
examples are road pavers’ sensor-
based guidance, earthmoving control
and infrastructure inspection. In the
group of housing the examples are
interior building finishing, brick layer
masonry, column welding, modular
industrialized building’s construction.
(synergypositioning.co.nz)

Applications
 Interior-finishing operations in the
building are very time consuming
and requires high degree of
accuracy. There are several
mobile manipulators able to
perform variety of operations like
extend, compact and control the
thickness of the floor concrete,
painting and steel column fire
protection spraying, assembly of
interior walls and ceilings, etc.
 An effort had been done in the
brick laying masonry and the
development of robotic
prefabrication of façade and wall
elements.
 these robots are tele-operated and
perform only simple operations.

Welding
 The assembly of steel-based buildings is performing by
welding, such as column-to-column and column-to-beam
joints. The mobile robot performs a variety of column-to-
column welding. The steel columns of up to 100 mm
thickness can be round-, square-, or H-shaped, as well as
box-sectional members. For column-to-beam welding, there
is a combination of welder/transport type which can run on
decks and a type which can weld lower flanges from below.
(www.600496.com)

Construction robots
(uproxx.com)
(masterbuilder.co.in)(www.bdcnetwork.com)
(www.enr.com)

MAINTENANCE AND REPAIRS
OF NUCLEAR INSTALLATIONS
 operation and
maintenance of
industrial nuclear
facilities and
laboratories,
 maintenance in
nuclear reactors,
 decommissioning
and dismantling
nuclear facilities,
and
 emergency
intervention.
(www.pennenergy.com)

Maintenance of highways
 highway integrity management (crack sealing, pothole repair) &
highway marking management (pavement marker replacement, paint
re-striping)
 highway debris management (litter bag pickup, on road refuse
collection, hazardous spill cleanup, snow removal)
 highway signing management (sign and guide marker washing,
roadway advisory) & highway work zone management (automatic
warning system, lightweight movable barriers, automatic cone
placement and retrieval)
 highway landscaping management (vegetation control, irrigation
control)
(www.theconstructionindex.co.uk)

Railways
 The railway maintenance shops
are the most common location of
robots, which perform activities
such as welding, grinding,
cleaning, and painting, inspections
etc.
(vision-systems.com)

Power Line Maintenance
 Other related
work in this area
includes
teleoperated
system for live-
line inspections &
maintenance
 for automatic
washing and
brushing of
polluted electric
insulators.
(spectrum.ieee.org)

Underwater facilities
 Teleoperated robots are
widely used to maintain
facilities beneath the surface
of the ocean, mainly in
service of the offshore oil
industry. Specific
applications include repairing
communications cables,
pipelines, well heads, and
platforms. Teleoperators have
also been deployed to clean
marine growth from power
plant cooling systems , to
inspect and clean steam
generators, perform
underwater construction, and
to inspect and repair water
conveyance tunnels.
(ztnet.com)

House keeping operations
(goodhousekeeping.co.uk)
(web-japan.org)

CONCRETE RECYCLING
(www.bdcnetwork.com)

INSPECTIONS
 Melbourne Water has developed an artificial
intelligence(the science and engineering of making
intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer
programs) based sewer condition monitoring and
inspection system to meet all operational requirements
of full scale use in a host of sewer -pipe types and
underground conditions. The system uses a
telerobotically operated in-pipe crawler vehicle with
vision, acoustic and laser scanner.
 Traditionally, large sewers are inspected directly by staff
who walk their length, have limited reliability and
consistency , due to lapses of operator concentration ,
operator inexperience, and the difficulty of deducing pipe
condition from a 2D video image and are exposed to
poisonous gases, biological hazards, and the risk of

QUALITY ASSURANCE AND
PHYSICAL TESTING
 The Hamersley Iron organisation in Western
Australia has developed a multi -functional,
fully robotised, on-site materials testing
laboratory for the industrial quality control of
bulk excavated materials. The systems allows
automatic crushing and sampling of bulk
materials and the physical and chemical
testing of samples. Full sample sieve
analyses with accompanying complex testing
such as such as sample weighing, oven
drying and various types of chemical analysis
are possible. The remote on-site testing
facility is monitored operationally from a
manned laboratory some 5 kilometres away .

Underwater Robot for Dam
Inspections
 The underwater
robot can be
used to inspect
submerged
structures when
depth, turbidity
or strong
currents make it
too risky for
humans

A Robot for Inspecting Live
Transmission Lines
 this acrobatic robot is able to
function in places that line workers
have difficulty reaching. It can run
along the ground wire, individual
conductors or bundled conductors.
Through its camera, line crews can
thus conduct detailed and highly
precise inspections of live
transmission lines, safely and
without compromising grid

Advantages of robots in
construction
 Improvement in work
quality
 Consistency and
accuracy
 Reduction of labour
cost
 Savings accrued on
safety and health
improvements
 Time savings
 Improvement in
productivity
 Human safety

Disadvantages
 Robot mobility only
for which it is
programmed
 Weight and size of
robots
 Robot accuracy for
limited duties
 Robot operation and
maintenance
 Unemployment
 Costly
 dependence

LIMITATIONS IN CONSTRUCTION
 The nature of the work environment,
which is highly unstructured in general
involving handling heavy objects,
 Big tolerances,
 Low level of standardization, medium
level of industrialization and pre-
fabrication,
 Non-coordination between architects,
builders, suppliers, etc.

Why Robotics Knowledge
 To have a knowledge for global
competition
 To meet challenges of repair,
maintenance and dismantling of
skyscrapers
 To inspect, repair, maintain and
dismantle nuclear installations and highly
toxic chemical installations
 To meet challenges of military
advancements
 To inspect, repair, maintain and
construction of tunnels, mining

The Robotics industry is more important
in Japan than any other country in the
world. Japan employs over a quarter of
a million industrial robot workers. In the
next 15 years, Japan estimates that
number to jump to over one million and
they expect revenue for robotics to be
near $70 billion by 2025.

 In the hospitals, they may provide help for
the elderly, they may be play-friends for
children.
 As an office receptionist, a security
guards, even a primary school teacher
and even dancers
 As a domestic helper,
 Mechanical toys.
 Industrial robots

 India developing robotic soldiers to
replace humans in warfare (PTI Jun 10,
2013, 09.04AM IST)
 In India a few research groups have been working in
the development of robots but a break through is yet
to be made in the field of robots for large-scale
industrial application. The groups working on
robotics include Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT), the
Central Machine Tools Institute (CMIT), the IIT,
Madras, the IISc and the Hyderabad Science Society,
Hyderabad.
 BEL was the first Indian Industry to introduce an
indigenously developed robot in its production line, a
Tick and Place' type with a three- axis movement.
 The Hyderabad Science Society developed a robot
with the ability to move about using ultrasonic
sensors which could be used in industries involving
health hazards, such as spraying chemical and
nuclear plants.
 ----
Indian
Scenar
io

SOME APPLICATIONS IN
CONSTRUCTION
 Repetitive works like fabrication of large panels,
stacking, and their installation etc.
 Construction of modular houses.
 Fabrication of components and construction of Pre-
Engineered buildings.
 Welding and fabrication of steel structures.
 Repair and maintenance of skyscrapers, particularly
outer facade.
 Dismantling of old buildings.
 Removal of debris after disasters and sensing live
human bodies
 Fire protection and extinguishing in skyscrapers.
 Making building blocks of large sizes and their
placement
 Repair and maintenance of nuclear stations.
 Desilting of drains, water supply lines, sewer lines and
other service lines.

Robotics

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