Development of a Robotic Structural Steel Placement System

The NIST Construction Metrology and Automation Group, in cooperation with the NIST Intelligent Systems Division, is researching robotic structural steel placement as part of a project to develop an Automated Steel Construction Testbed. This project was initiated in response to industry requests for advanced tools and methodologies to speed the erection of steel structures while maintaining or enhancing standards for worker safety and facility reliability. This initial effort integrates and extends prior NIST research in robotic crane employment, teleoperated steel beam placement, laser-based site metrology, construction component tracking, and web-enabled 3-D visualization.