Self-Contained Automated Construction Deposition System

This article presents a novel autonomous system concept for automated construction of houses and other buildings via deposition of concrete and similar materials. The overall system consists of a novel cable-suspended mobility subsystem (a self-contained extension of the RoboCrane), a deposition nozzle subsystem, a metrology subsystem, and a material supply subsystem. This article focuses mainly on the kinematics and statics analysis for control of the self-contained cable-suspended mobility subsystem. We also present alternate design concepts for the mobility system. The purpose of the Cartesian metrology system is to provide an outer-loop controller to provide the required Cartesian pose motions despite uncertainties and unmodeled effects such as cable stretch, wear, and flexibility, plus wind loads. Corresponding author information: Robert L. Williams II, Associate Professor Department of Mechanical Engineering 259 Stocker Center, Ohio University Athens, OH 45701-2979 Phone: (740) 593-1096 Fax: (740) 593-0476 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.ent.ohiou.edu/~bobw