Feasibility Study on Reinforcement Placement with a BIM-Enabled Collaborative Robot System (2024-07)¶

The placement of rebar reinforcement is a critical hindrance to the wide adoption of 3D concrete printing (3DCP) in the construction sector. Existing methods to integrate rebar reinforcement are incompatible with the automated process of 3DCP and lack engineering availability. This study aims to propose a Building Information Modelling (BIM)-enabled collaborative robot system to place rebar reinforcement in 3D-printed concrete structures automatically. The system includes a BIM information processing module and a robot manipulation module. In the BIM information processing module, the concrete and rebar reinforcement data are extracted and analyzed by a self-developed script. The vertical and transverse rebar data is used to optimize the printing path and robot path planning. The processed data is used in the robot manipulation module to conduct concurrent concrete printing and rebar placement with a mutual collision avoidance path designed by RAPID. The proposed system was validated by a case study in a virtual environment, in which the two robots successfully printed a circular concrete structure with 14 vertical rebars and 2 transverse rebars. The result proves that the proposed system can enhance automation and engineering availability of placing rebar reinforcement in 3DCP.