Publications / 2016 Proceedings of the 33rd ISARC, Auburn, USA

Automation of Modular Assembly of Structural Frames for Buildings

Benny Raphael, Sai Chowdeswara Rao and Koshy Varghese
Pages 412-420 (2016 Proceedings of the 33rd ISARC, Auburn, USA, ISBN 978-1-5108-2992-3, ISSN 2413-5844)
Abstract:

On congested sites in many cities around the world, there is no space available for installing heavy tower cranes and the approach roads are narrow. On such sites, it is desirable to have an automated construction system that can assemble the required components without the use of heavy lifting equipments. This paper introduces a new automation technique which aims to reduce the usage of heavy equipment?s in construction projects. The construction is done using automated lifting and positioning systems at the ground level which help in completing the project cheaper and faster. The concept proposed here is a top to bottom construction method using modules of standard sizes. A semi-automatic demonstration prototype of the concept has been implemented in a laboratory. In order to evaluate the potential for saving construction time, experiments were conducted to estimate the time for various operations and these were projected to estimate the time for a typical residential building. It is shown that the structural frame of small buildings can be constructed in a short time, with significantly reduced labor and at low cost. The experimental results show that the total time taken by different people to complete the activities are very consistent and the use of skilled manpower is not essential. With further automation, the time is expected to be reduced considerably.

Keywords: Automation, Modules, Assembly, Optimization, Automated Construction.