Special Issue on Construction and Built Environment

抄録

The construction industry is one of the largest economical sectors in developed countries. The economical contribution of the construction industry is comparable with the contribution of the manufacturing industry. However, the construction industry is one of the most unfamiliar areas of R&D in the robotics community. The first ideas for construction robots appeared in the 1970s in Japan. Due to quality problems of construction works, lack of skilled labor, low productivity, numerous accidents and fatalities and high construction demand, the first prototypes of construction robots were developed towards the end of the 1970s. Since then more than 200 construction robots and service robots for buildings have been developed, but only about 10% of them have been successfully introduced to the construction market. The development of on-site robots in the 1980s peaked with the development of integrated automated building construction sites in the 1990s. In the beginning of the 21st century humanoid robots were researched and tested. In the future we will see robots that care for the elderly and handicapped as a further development of construction robots.

This issue gives an overview on the state of art of robotic technologies in construction. The introductory article also relates the construction robotics development to the industrial robotics technology in the prefabrication sector of the 1970s, gives examples of various construction robotics developments of the 1980s, the integrated automated building construction sites since the 1990s, and the humanoid construction robotics developments and integrated industrialization efforts of recent date. Robotic subtechnologies such as programming, sensors, kinematics, teleoperation, navigation, human-robot interaction are presented to the reader. During the last years much effort has been devoted to the application of robots and robotics technology in construction works. Most of them are for out-door application, where the tasks are developed in complex unstructured environments and under hazardous conditions. The construction robots introduced during the last years have dramatically improved labor conditions, productivity and quality levels, and also have increased the safety conditions for operators. The nowadays construction robotics technology tries to take advantage of the last developments for control, navigation, localization, human-machine interface or sensor use. However robotics in construction is still a very challenging topic in order to clarify many unsolved R&D issues.

The purpose of this special issue is to provide a review of open issues and new developments in robotics in construction, ranging from major construction engineering projects to residential building construction:

• Robotics for building construction.

• Robotics for civil engineering: roads, bridges, earth moving, etc.

• Inspection, maintenance and infrastructures robots.

• Navigation, mapping and localization of robots in construction environments.

• Technology components for construction robots: 3D sensors, end-effectors, HMI, control strategies, cooperation, safety, etc.