Researchers from Swiss university, ETH Zurich, have taught an autonomous excavator to build a dry-stone wall using boulders weighing several tons, and demolition debris.
According to the university, until now, dry stone wall construction has been an extremely laborious task, but the excavator — dubbed HEAP — embedded the wall in a digitally planned and autonomously mined landscape using sensor technology.
The university claims that it can map a 3D version of the site and localise existing building materials for the wall’s construction.
HEAP then leveraged specifically designed tools and machine vision to scan and clutch stones, which it can weigh and determine the centre of gravity.
The machine then places the stones in a desired location using a generated algorithm. According to researchers, the autonomous machine can place 20 to 30 stones in a single load — about as many as one delivery could supply.
The wall HEAP constructed is six metres high by 65 metres long.
The research collective included Gramazio Kohler Research; the Robotics Systems Lab, Vision for Robotics Lab, and the Chair of Landscape Architecture.
In their research paper the authors claim that the machine can be used to facilitate construction in remote locations as well as offering a carbon-reducing alternative to common building practices.
It adds that the work illustrates the potential of autonomous heavy construction vehicles to “build adaptively with highly irregular, abundant and sustainable materials that require little to no transportation and preprocessing”.
The design application was developed as part of Switzerland’s National Centre of Competence in Research for Digital Fabrication, an organisation that aims to revolutionise architecture through a combination of digital technologies and physical building processes.
To read more stories on robotics click here
