Development and Trial of a Teleconstruction System

This paper will introduce a multi-designer and multi-construction machine system which has a realizeability capacity. It also provides a cooperative creation environment from design activity to prototype construction, which is indispensable for product development and the predictive simulation of complex construction projects.The requirements, the necessary functions and the implementation of a "cooperative tele-designing and tele-construction system" which is distributed on a computer network will be presented. The necessary technologies which have been implemented for a cooperative tele-designing and tele-construction system using the internet are as follows: (1) visual information display, such as predictive display of geometrical information to compensate for time delay and real-time construction assembly display using multi-axis force information, (2) predictive auditory information presentation using a physical model of block assembly and an information transformation technique, (3) predictive force information presentation, (4) tactile presentation of the state joining as high frequency vibration, and so on. the software system was implemented as a multi-construction-machine system. Necessary agents and their functions are discussed based on the system, as implemented and tested. In the paper, several experimental results including Germany-Japan tele-designing and assembling experiments and future problems to be solved to realize the widespread usage of multi-opeartor and multi-designing and construction -machine systems are discussed.