Presentation of EUREKA / GEO Project: A Façade Working Robot

The purpose of this paper is to present the EUREKA / GEO project : a robot for finishing work on facades. This project joins presently three partners : the French building construction CBC company (Campenon Bernard Construction), coordinator of the project, the british Simon Engineering company, world leader in auto-elevators, and the French CEA (Comissariat al ‘Energie Atomique), responsible for attached robotics research and control system development. The considered field of applications of the GEO robot concerns mainly spraying applications like cleaning, painting, sandblasting and others. Its structure is composed of a large size robotized carrier which supports a terminal robot handling the tools. Its working procedure is based on an off-site programming phasis thanks to a CAD model of the façade and a task level programming language, then an on-site execution phasis supervised by an operator which can intervene by using an on-board hand controller for teleoperating the robot.