An Agent-based Approach for Modeling Human-robot Collaboration in Bricklaying

Construction robots have drawn attention in research and practice for decades. Considering most of the construction robots are not fully automated and humans are always involved in the construction process, how humans and robots collaborate has a great impact on the total productivity. Unlike collaboration systems between human-human, human-device and robot-robot, human-robot collaboration process has its complexity and uniqueness. Thus, this paper starts with analysis of human-robot collaboration system in construction, then provides an agent-based approach to simulate the process in bricklaying with emphasis on its complexity. A real project in Beijing is utilized to validate the feasibility of the proposed method. Besides, managerial insights useful for the workers to better utilize construction robots can be drawn from the results, which shows the effectiveness of the proposed model. This research contributes to the body of knowledge an agent-based approach to modeling, simulating, and analyzing the human-robot collaboration process in construction sites. This research serves as a foundation for further in-depth investigation in this area.