Feasibility verification of brick-laying robot using manipulation trajectory and the laying pattern optimization

Brick handling in a construction road paving site or building construction site is traditionally performed by the handwork of humans. These types of tasks are absolutely laborious and time consuming. However, the automation of the block-laying task has several problems caused by the inequality of construction materials and working condition. In particular, it is difficult to satisfy the requirements of customers on various laying and paving patterns. This study proposes a manipulator integrated mobile system operated by the optimal laying pattern and trajectory algorithm. The pattern generator is designed by the Fast Algorithm which is motivated by Steudel's algorithm, and the manipulator trajectory generation algorithm is developed by the Overlap Method which is a treatment skill for robot-surrounded obstacles. This study mainly shows the efficiencies of the proposed pattern generation algorithm and trajectory generation algorithm for the bricklaying task. Finally, it introduces the developed prototype system and its basic performance. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.