Preliminary System Design for Teleoperating Construction in Extreme Environments

Automation of construction is urgent needs for improving efficiency of works, reducing the number of personnel, and working in extreme environments such as other planet or moon or disaster-stricken area. However, the current situation is still insufficient due to reasons of such complexity of work and high risk especially at building sites. In terms of heavy machinery in building construction, it is indispensable to measure its own position and attitude because their precision directly relates to construction accuracy. If lifting and delivering works can be unmanned or teleoperated, it is expected to drastically reduce the number of personnel and improve efficiency. In this research, we have found that a mating connection mechanism can aid teleoperating construction. This mechanism works without any fastener, that is utilized in the construction of the temporary cover of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant unit 1, with RTK/GNSS (Real Time Kinematic, Global Navigation Satellite System) positioning systems is possible to realize the teleoperating construction. By conducting confirmatory experiment of positioning system using a tower crane, we have confirmed the normal operation of all systems. In terms of position and azimuth angle, the accuracy is sufficient to meet requirements for building construction with the mating connection mechanism. Regarding ICP matching by LIDAR (Laser Imaging Detection and Ranging), it was confirmed to be possible to compute the altitude angle with extremely high accuracy utilizing point cloud information from the LIDAR and CAD data using the ICP (Iterative Closest Point) matching library. Detailed preliminary unmanned building construction concept and some results are shown in this paper.