The HumanTech pilots
Five demonstration sitesin Europe and Japan
HumanTech will deploy and validate its technical approach in five different large-scale construction demonstration sites in Europe and Japan.
These will generate a wide range of user-centric requirements, deployment blueprints, integration plans, testing scenarios and performance monitoring to evaluate preliminary designs and feed the project's technical developments.
Use of DSDT to optimize material and equipment usage and automate H&S monitoring
Type of site:
Residential building
Country:
Switzerland
End-user involved:
Implenia
Technologies involved:
Dynamic Semantic Digital Twin (DSDT), BIMxD
The HumanTech DSDT will be applied to enable material inventorizing with extended reality visualization and autonomous inspection of guiderails to support health and safety (H&S).
What this pilot will allow
- Autonomous mission planning and data capturing.
- DSDT generation with semantic understanding of openings without guiderails and material (formwork, scaffolding, bricks) /equipment (power tools, safety equipment).
- BIMxD update on material and equipment inventory.
Benefits for human workers and the environment
- Prevent falling accidents and avoid serious injuries and fatalities.
- Increase efficiency of data acquisition with autonomous procedures.
- Provide exhaustive information to workers about available material and equipment on site.
- Avoid reordering and extra allocation of equipment, thus reducing waste.
Autonomous transportation and wearable supported laying of concrete blockwork
Type of site:
Different types of buildings
Project site:
ACCIONA’s demo park, with prototype buildings that can be
adapted to different construction technologies and
operational conditions.
Country:
Spain
End-user involved:
ACCIONA
Technologies involved:
Autonomous transport and handling, wearables
This project will be focused on the robotic transport of material and wearable supported human labour for laying concrete bricks in a building where cranes and other basic material handling equipment cannot be used due to enclosed ceilings.
What this pilot will allow
- Autonomous robotic pickup, transportation and handover of concrete blockwork.
- HumanTech intelligent wearables, with an exoskeleton providing automatic support for heavy tasks such as lifting, handling and positioning concrete blocks.
Benefits for human workers and the environment
- Relieve humans from heavy lifting in material transportation.
- Reduce workers’ health and safety issues, such as back injuries.
- Increase construction efficiency in existing buildings and the attractiveness of reusing and rehabilitating them.
Autonomous partial demolition of concrete elements
Type of site:
Residential/office/industrial
Project site:
Deep renovation of a building
Country:
Japan
End-user involved:
Kajima corporation
Technologies involved:
Autonomous demolition robots
During a renovation, it is common to cut openings in existing walls, floors or girders to place mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) ducts and pipes or additional doors/windows. Such tasks are commonly performed with human-operated tools (grinders, basic guidance rigs), which expose the user to a harmful environment (dust, falling parts, etc.).
HumanTech demolition robots perform this task autonomously and are remotely monitored by a human operator.
What this pilot will allow
- BIMxD-based task planning for several opening cuttings.
- Robot localization and mapping for precise cutting.
- Autonomous cutting with remote worker support (guidance/remote control).
- Handling of cut pieces.
- Documentation of work with DSDT and BIMxD update.
Benefits for human workers and the environment
- Remote operation allows workers to be in a safe, dust and hazardous substance-free environment.
- Avoid operation of heavy, vibrating machinery.
- Intuitive robot control for low-level access to robotic technology.
- More efficient demolition works make refurbishment more attractive compared to green-field construction.
Autonomous data acquisition for bridge inspection and monitoring
Type of site:
Bridge
Country:
Germany
End-user involved:
Implenia
Technologies involved:
DSDT
With ageing infrastructure throughout Europe, frequent monitoring and inspection are important to extend the lifetime of bridges. A complete BIM generation is often required, especially for older constructions.
What this pilot will allow
- Autonomous data acquisition with flight path validation, BIMxD generation from the DSDT.
- Recognition and semantic exploitation of cracks and spalling, optic recognition of exposed reinforcement and corrosion, bearings, calcium efflorescence, etc.
- BIMxD delivery and comparison with a former inspection to detect changes.
- BIMxD-based XR visualization with UI (annotation, image capturing, etc.).
Benefits for human workers and the environment
- Periodic inspections facilitate early recognition of critical damage and allow for early repairs, avoiding wasted resources and manpower on new bridge construction or large-scale repairs.
- Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) replace human inspectors working in high, narrow and poorly ventilated spaces inside bridges and next to road traffic, increasing their safety and health.
Robotic application of mastic in concrete expansion joints
Type of site:
Road, industrial
Project site:
Facebook CLN 5 & 6 Data Center Clonee
Country:
Spain
End-user involved:
ACCIONA
Technologies involved:
Robots for transportation and handling
To prevent water from infiltrating the expansion joints of large concrete slabs and roads, it is necessary to seal them with mastic. HumanTech transportation and handling robots will be used to apply mastic in expansion joints autonomously in a human-guided scenario.
What this pilot will allow
- 3D mapping of expansion joints.
- Cleaning of joints (removing dust and loose concrete).
- Autonomous application of filler material, primer and mastic.
- Intuitive control interface for worker guidance.
Benefits for human workers and the environment
- Relieve workers from monotonous tasks in bend-down posture.
- Efficient maintenance and repair of expansion joints, increasing building lifetime.
- Keep workers away from traffic and reduce accidents and fatalities.