Unlocking the future of research: Joana Goerg, Master's student at RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau and intern at SINTEF
Joana Goerg is the protagonist of the fifth edition of our series "Unlocking the future of research". She is currently involved with two of our partners — a great example of collaboration within our HumanTech Team! On the one hand, she's studying for a master's degree at the RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau University, with a strong reputation in research and teaching. On the other hand, she's doing an internship at SINTEF Manufacturing, one of Europe's largest independent research organisations, where she's working at HumanTech.
Learn about her passion for research and engineering, her work with robots and automation, and the ideas she is contributing to at HumanTech.
"I am fascinated by working in such an international company with such modern approaches. I hope I can continue to think ahead and implement new ideas!"
Even as a child, I was interested in research, and my fascination with bridges led me to study civil engineering. After completing my bachelor's degree in Mosbach (Germany), I am currently studying for a master's degree in deepening structural engineering.
My university in southwest Germany is the Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau (RPTU), where I got the fantastic opportunity to do an internship at SINTEF Manufacturing and work on the HumanTech project.
Before starting the internship, besides the amazing Norway, where SINTEF is based, I was very interested in the company's way of working, which has helped me to progress.
At SINTEF, I have been able to use my knowledge of construction technology to work with robots. In the HumanTech project, I contributed with a good idea of how bricklayers work, which enabled us to organise a live demonstration in a practical way and better adapt robots to the operations on the construction site.
I also spend a lot of time analysing point clouds, which need to be compared with each other and with a previously created Building Information Model (BIM) to enable automated construction site progress recording. I am doing initial tests in the lab to see how detailed changes to an object can be detected. In addition to the walls and columns, it should also be possible to detect colour differences, for example, due to a finished coat of paint.
My work aims to discover how detailed differences can be recognised and reliably detected. Later in the project, the detection of point cloud differences may be tested on real construction sites. Until now, I have taken 3D images myself, but a mobile robot will later do it automatically. The segmentation of the point clouds also needs to be further automated.
I am fascinated by working in such an international company with such modern approaches. I hope I can continue to think ahead and implement new ideas!
Want to discover more stories of the PhDs, junior researchers, master students and interns working with us? Read the fourth edition of our #FutureofResearch series with Irati Rasines, a PhD student at the University of the Basque Country and our partner Tecnalia, a leading private research and technology organisation in Spain.
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AI and Robotics in Construction workshop returns to the European Robotics Forum
Join us again at the next edition of the European Robotics Forum (ERF) — one of Europe’s most influential events for the robotics and artificial intelligence community. Our workshop, “AI and Robotics in Construction”, which we will hold on 13 March 2024, will bring together leading experts in AI and robotics — from engineers to researchers and business people, as well as end-users and policymakers — from Europe and beyond.
Projects involved: For the second year in a row, we have collaborated with our sister projects, the EU-funded BEEYONDERS and RoBétArmé, founding members of our Tech4EUconstruction cluster, to organise this workshop.
🗓️ Date and time: 13 March 2024, 16:40-18:00 (GMT+1 / CET)
📍 Location: Palacongressi di Rimini, Via della Fiera 23 – 47923 Rimini (Italy) — Borgo
👥 Organisers: Jason Rambach, Dimitrios Giakoumis and Antonio Alonso Cepeda
📩 Registration
Continuing our workshop from last year, we aim to shed light on questions such as the following:
- What are the most important applications for AI and robotics in construction, and what are the main technological challenges that need to be addressed in this scope?
- How can AI and robotics solutions in construction be acceptable to companies and workers in the building sector? What needs to be done in the next years to this end?
- What are some unexpected challenges during implementation after one year of our projects? Are there any user insights we have collected?
In particular, we want to highlight the potential benefits of AI and robotics in achieving automation in construction — based on the research and development activities we are carrying out.
After briefly presenting our three projects, we will address the key aspects of AI and robotics technologies necessary for introducing robotic automation in construction sites. We will mainly focus on sharing advances in robot vision, navigation, control and human-robot interaction (HRI).
In addition, we will share insights from the first end-user evaluation developed in HumanTech and hold a panel discussion on challenges and lessons learned within our projects. To conclude, we will have an interactive feedback round with the workshop attendees.
Agenda
- Min 0-2: Welcome and introduction by the organisers
- Min 3-22: Presentation of HumanTech, BEEYONDERS and RoBétArmé by their coordinators, Dr. Jason Rambach (DFKI), Antonio Alonso Cepeda (ACCIONA) and Dr. Dimitrios Giakoumis (CERTH ITI), respectively
- Min 23-53: Advances in robot vision, navigation, control and HRI towards new robotic solutions in construction:
- Robot vision in RoBétArmé - Prof. Renaud Detry, KU Leuven
- Human-robot interfaces in construction: HumanTech - Dr. Gabor Sziebig, SINTEF
- Robot vision in autonomous machinery: BEEYONDERS - Dra. María Teresa Lázaro, ITAINNOVA
- Min 54-64: Insights from the first user evaluation in HumanTech: Patricia Rosen, BAuA
- Min 65-75: Round table - Lessons learned and challenges from robotic projects in construction:
- Prof. Herman Bruyninckx, KU Leuven
- Dr. Gabor Sziebig, SINTEF
- Dr. Sascha Wischniewski, BAuA
- José Carlos Jiménez-Fernández, Tecnalia
- Alberto Landini, STAM
- Min 75-80: Feedback round with attendees
Join us! Let’s connect, learn, and identify how to accelerate construction robotics and AI innovation.
Register now Check the agenda and speakers details Join the discussion
https://erf2024.eu/programme/session/ai-and-robotics-in-construction/
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