Term Project Description

For my term project I chose to explore the uses and potential uses of robotics in construction, particularly in the structural component manufacturing and assembling.  Professor Mitchell suggested I further narrow down my topic to make it a more manageable project for the term.  Taking this into consideration I think I am going to research how robotics can and will impact the precast concrete industry. More particularly, the manufacturing of prestressed elements in the plant.  I had done a co-op with a precast manufacturer my sophomore year and have first hand experience with how the plant is run.  I am also currently taking a concrete design course, as well as a prestressed concrete design course.  Using all of the knowledge I have gained from these and the knowledge I will gain from these courses, I would be able to better understand in which ways the use of robotics would benefit this facet of the industry.  While I believe that robotics could and eventually will become the main components of a prestressed concrete plant, I believe that there is still a large human component necessary for the success of the plant.

While I had worked at the precast plant I had noticed that there was great deal of automation within the plant, but was in a very primitive form.  I am not sure if this was just because the plant I worked at was in great need of an update, or if this was common among precast plants.  Either way, there was much room for improvement.  I remember the concrete mixing plant being in the back of the building, where normal concrete trucks would receive the concrete and then continue to drive through the plant to their destination, all the while mixing as if they were delivering concrete to a site in the field miles away.  This seemed very inefficent and time consuming and potentially dangerous.  A truck meant for operating on an open road was opperating in an environmet with people walking aroud in close quarters.  These trucks have many blindspots and are not meant to be driven indoors like that.  There was also the issue of pulling the prestressing tendons to their design tension, a very dangerous taks.  If one of those strands had pulled or snapped it could have easily killed someone.  There is also the health hazard of working in an environment with all of the chemicals and dust associated with precast plants. 

I want to discuss how and if robotics will be implemented into the precast manufacturaing industry in the near future.  I feel this is an industry that can benefit from the use of robotics in a big way.

I found the project being done by Maria Gabriela Gonzalez and her partner to be very interesting and pretty similar to my project.  They talk about using robots in construction in the field; particularly for the more repetetive, automated tasks as well.  I think that once the technology becomes more advanced this will become much more feasible. 

Sources:  My first hand experience in a precast plant at Universal Concrete Products Corporation