WO2016156626A1

WO2016156626A1 - Robot for construction by layers and construction installation comprising a cluster of robots

Info

Publication number: WO2016156626A1
Application number: PCT/ES2015/070242
Authority: WO
Inventors: Francisco DE BORJA HUESO RIEU; Ignacio GONZÁLEZ ALONSO
Original assignee: Huritrabe, S. L.
Priority date: 2015-03-30
Filing date: 2015-03-30
Publication date: 2016-10-06

Abstract

The invention relates to a robot (1) for construction by layers comprising a tank (2) for the storage of construction material, movement means (3) designed to permit the movement of the robot (1) over a surface on which it will deposit a layer of construction material, and a head (4) for pouring said construction material. Same permits the 3D printing-type layer construction of buildings without a height limit. The invention also relates to an installation, preferably having a cluster of robots (1) according to the invention, which are controlled from a central control unit (18).

Description

LAYER CONSTRUCTION ROBOT AND CONSTRUCTION INSTALLATION UNDERSTANDING A RANGE OF ROBOTS

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is framed in the technical field of layered construction systems.

More specifically, a layered construction robot and an installation comprising a swarm of said robots and a central control unit that controls the movement of the robots and the pouring of the building material centrally are described.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Layered construction is based on the operation of 3D printers to automate the construction process of all the elements of a building. This construction system allows to build pre-designed buildings in a CAD / CAM / BIM program.

3D object printing is a technical field that has developed a lot in recent years. This technique is based on the manufacture of objects by deposition of layers of material until the final shape of the object is obtained. In some cases, 3D printing is done using powder material that is solidified by layers, for example by means of a laser that heats the corresponding section.

Currently, these 3D printing techniques have begun to be used on a large scale, for example for the construction of buildings using layer construction systems, which are based on the principles described. An advantage associated with layered construction systems is the ease of building curved walls. They also allow the construction of complex structures quickly and at a low cost.

However, currently known systems have an important associated technical problem, which is the height limitation of the constructions that can be carried out with them. This is due to the fact that the systems of the state of the art of layered construction comprise a bridge crane from which the elements in charge of concrete pouring hang and therefore it is the height of the bridge crane which limits the height of the buildings.

From the state of the art, for example, a 3D construction system is known which comprises a light-bridge crane that maintains good load resistance ratios thanks to the inclusion of tensors in its structure.

Developments have also been made in this type of systems focused on how to take the spill material from the material tanks that are at ground level to the top of the bridge crane. In these systems it is necessary for the material to reach the pouring arm from the top to avoid that there are pipes hanging in the span of the bridge that could interfere in the movement of the arm or in the pouring of material.

Also known are for example bridge cranes that are removable and that are at least partially installed in a truck to allow a faster and easier movement of the installation to the construction site.

In this sense, developments have been made that improve the construction systems by layers but always focused on the use of bridge cranes for the pouring of construction material. DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention proposes a layered construction robot and a construction installation comprising said robot.

The described layer construction robot allows the placement of a plurality of layers, one on top of the other, to form at least one constructive section of a building, such as a house wall. The great advantage provided by the robot of the present invention is that it moves directly over the previously deposited layers of the construction, so there is no height limit for the construction.

Preferably to ensure rapid drying of the construction material and allow the robot to move over the previous layers, the construction material is mixed with a binder that allows rapid hardening of said material once it has been poured.

The operation of the robot, based on 3D printing techniques is very simple since it is based on depositing the building material in layers. To do this, it essentially comprises a tank intended to receive the construction material, means of displacement that allow its movement and a spill head configured to deposit the spill material as it progresses in its displacement. It preferably also comprises a second storage tank for binder material, which is the material that allows rapid drying of the previous layers.

Likewise, the robot comprises at least one control unit that is responsible for receiving a signal with the necessary instructions for the movement and pouring of construction material. Said signal is preferably sent from a control unit in which it has been introduced or a CAD / CAM / BIM model of the building to be built has been developed.

A user can therefore design a specific building and then send the necessary data to the robot to build the different parts of the building in layers. The robot follows the corresponding displacement instructions and discharges material in the specified areas, making passes of several layers that allow it to take height until the building is completed.

The pouring of material is carried out from the pouring head which is connected to the construction material tank and preferably also to the second deposit of binder material. Said pouring head is disposed at one end of the robot so that when the robot advances at the same time the construction material that is deposited from the rear of the robot performs the pouring. Thus the robot does not pass over the newly poured material and it has time to harden.

The means of movement of the robot preferably comprise track wheels to ensure the stability of the robot and its movement on any type of surface. Also these means of movement allow the robot to form layers with any type of shape and geometry.

An object of the present invention is also a construction installation comprising at least one robot as described above and comprising at least two storage tanks, a storage tank for building material and a storage tank for binder material. Preferably the installation comprises a swarm of robots as described above. The storage tank allows a large amount of construction material to be accumulated so that when the robot tank has been emptied the robot moves to the tank and refills it. In this way it is not necessary for the robot to travel long distances to reach a refueling unit. The storage tank is installed in the land where the building is being built and comprises at least one connection pipe intended to be connected to the robot tank. Preferably next to the storage tank of construction material is the second storage tank of binder material.

Thus, when the robot is pouring into the corresponding layer and needs more material, it moves to the area near the foot of the crane and the tanks are connected to the tanks with the connection pipes. While the robot is recharging building material and binder material, another robot can replace you in the work you were doing.

During the recharge operation of construction material and binder material, the battery can also be recharged.

The installation comprises as an essential element a central control unit to which the storage tanks and robots are linked. Said central control unit is configured to send a signal with instructions for moving and pouring material to the control unit of each robot.

The central control unit is the element in charge of managing all robot movements when the installation comprises a swarm of robots that work synchronously.

In this way you can build an entire building with a plurality of robots each working in a different area of the building and thus reduce the construction completion times very significantly.

Likewise, the central control unit is the element in charge of controlling the refueling of each robot, managing the amounts of construction and binder material in each robot and managing the queues for refueling and recharging the robot's battery.

Preferably, the installation comprises an elevator that moves vertically and comprises first connections to the tank connection pipes and second connections configured to join the robot tanks.

The sense that the elevator has is to allow the connection between the connection pipes of the tanks and the tanks of the robot at any height that the robot is. In this way, although the construction has been growing in height, the elevator moves to the necessary height thanks to the elevator positioning means configured to regulate the vertical movement until facing the robot. In the elevator is a central battery that allows you to recharge the robot's battery. The elevator's second connections are placed facing the robot tanks and connected to them. As more layers are placed, the elevator also moves up to continue allowing refueling. This is true in buildings where the height requires it to allow the pumping of material to be effective.

Preferably the installation also comprises a crane with at least one loading arm and which is connected to the central control unit. This loading arm allows you to load objects necessary for construction or that you want to place inside the building and at the same time also allows you to load the robots to move them to the desired positions. When the robots have to go to refuel material and the layers on which they are working correspond, for example, with building walls that have a window or door and are not continuous, the robot cannot reach the refueling zone. In these cases, the crane can pick up the robots with the loading arm and take it to the refueling zone.

Likewise, the crane may have the possibility of moving in a horizontal direction to guarantee the access of the loading arm to all possible positions of the robots.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

To complement the description that is being made and in order to help a better understanding of the characteristics of the invention, according to a preferred example of practical implementation thereof, a set of drawings is attached as an integral part of said description. where, for illustrative and non-limiting purposes, the following has been represented:

Figure 1 .- Shows a perspective view of a layered construction robot in which the robot is seen from above.

Figure 2.- Shows a perspective view of a layered construction robot in which the robot is seen from below.

Figure 3.- Shows a perspective view of the construction installation working on the construction of a building.

Figure 4.- Shows a zoom view of Figure 3 in which a robot is observed refueling construction material from the storage tank and binder material from the binder storage tank, and recharging the battery. PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

An example of embodiment of the present invention is described below with the aid of Figures 1 to 4.

Thus, in figure 1 a perspective of the proposed layer construction robot (1) can be seen. This robot (1) is configured to deposit one layer of material after another to form a part of the structure or the complete structure of a building.

In said figure the essential elements of the robot (1) can be seen as a storage tank (2) for construction material. In the tank (2) the robot (1) comprises enough construction material to be able to carry out the pouring work without having to depend on a direct connection to a storage tank (1 1). The tank (2) comprises a recharge mouth of construction material (20) through which the inside of the tank (2) is filled. Thus, the robot (1) can move independently without having to depend on pipes to be continuously receiving construction material. In this way a lot of versatility is gained since the robot does not have its limited movements at a certain distance from a storage tank of construction material or to specific positions marked by its continuous union to pipes with pouring material.

Likewise, the robot (1) comprises a second storage tank of binder material which is the material that allows rapid drying of the construction material of the previous layers giving it cohesion. Said second tank comprises a recharge mouth of binder material (21) through which its interior is filled with binder material.

The robot (1) also comprises displacement means (3) configured to allow the robot to move on a surface on which you will deposit a layer of building material. Preferably these displacement means (3) comprise track wheels, as can be clearly seen in figure 2. The track type wheels allow the movement of the robots (1) on any surface and also allow the movement of the robots (1 ) on any surface or geometry. For example, in the case represented in figure 3, a swarm of robots (1) can be seen working on the construction of a building from which one of them is pouring material into a corner of the building.

Another important element of the robot is a pouring head (4) of construction material that is connected to the tank (2) and is configured to extrude the building material on the surface on which it travels. Preferably the pouring head (4) is a pumping system associated with a Cartesian robot and is attached to the body of the robot like the carriage of a printer.

Other elements of the robot (1) are at least one battery (6) and at least one servomotor (5) linked to the displacement means (3).

Likewise, the robot (1) comprises a control unit (7) configured to receive a signal with the instructions for movement and spillage of material and configured to send said signal to the displacement means (3) and to the spill head (4 ). The displacement means (3) comprise at least one servomotor, a microcontroller and the tracks.

Preferably the signal with the instructions for displacement and pouring of material is received based on a previous design made in CAD / CAM / BIM in which the building to be constructed is represented. The instructions received by the robot (1) are related to the forward movements that it has to perform and the positions in the You have to do or not pour construction material. Also when the tank (2) empties the robot (1) has to move to the vicinity of the storage tank of construction material, the storage tank of binder to refuel and the central battery to recharge the battery (6) of the robot through battery recharge tabs (19).

In an exemplary embodiment, the layered construction robot (1) additionally comprises an arm with clamp (8) that is connected to the control unit (7) and configured to manipulate objects. The advantages of having this arm with clamp (8) are that you can place products necessary for the housing facilities, such as pipes, allows the possibility of coupling with another robot in the swarm, and allows the removal of obstacles and elements leftovers from the layers on which one works.

To control the movement, the robot (1) comprises positioning means (9) that are configured to guide said movement. An example of positioning means (9) are ultrasonic sensors or antennas with markers. The positioning means (9) can also be infrared sensors, GPS sensors and wireless beacons. The transmitting antennas of the wireless beacons are in communication with a central control unit (18).

The reason for configuring this multiple positioning system is to satisfy the needs and precision required by the work assigned to the robot (1), or in the case that it collaborates in a swarm of robots (1), to all of them .

The wireless beacons allow to effectively locate the swarm of robots within the desired construction zone. As previously described, the robot (1) comprises the control unit (7) configured to receive instructions from an external control device. For this, it comprises wireless communication means (10) for receiving said instructions and sending them to the control unit (7).

For the correct positioning of the robots (1) there are two positioning systems, one relative to the position of the robot (1) with respect to the wall being built and the other relative to the position of the spill head (4) with respect to the robot (1). By combining these systems, the position of the pouring head (4) with respect to the wall is obtained,

Also an object of the present invention is a construction installation, such as that shown in Figure 3, which comprises at least one robot (1) like the one described above and which preferably comprises a swarm of said robots (1). These robots (1) work governed by a central control unit (18) that is part of the installation and is configured to send a signal with instructions for movement and spillage of material to the control unit (7) of each robot (1).

Also part of the installation is a storage tank (1 1) for building material with at least one connecting pipe (12) configured to allow the construction material to exit. In this way the robots (1) do not have to move from the construction zone to refuel construction material.

Furthermore, to facilitate said refueling operations, the installation may comprise an elevator (15) that moves vertically and comprises first connections to the connecting pipe (12) of the construction material storage tank (1 1) and to the second connection pipe to the storage tank of binder material and second connections (16) configured to join the robot tanks (1).

To regulate the height to which the elevator (15) has to be moved, it comprises elevator positioning means configured to regulate its vertical movement to a position facing the robot (1) to be refueled.

Preferably the second connections (16) are retractable tubes that retract when they are not being used and which lengthen until contacting the robot (1) when refueling is to be done. In this way, when moving up or down the elevator, the second connections (16) do not at any time come into contact with areas of the building already built.

It also has a retractable tube (17) to recharge the robot's battery. Said retractable tube (17) is arranged in the elevator, so that it can be conveniently connected to the robot at whatever height it is. Preferably the shrink tube (17) has a conical head to facilitate coupling with the battery recharge tabs (19) of the robots (1).

Figure 4 shows a zoom of Figure 3 showing the connection between the elevator (15) and the robot (1) for refueling.

Likewise, the installation can comprise, as seen in figures 3 and 4, a crane (13) with at least one loading arm (14). Said crane (13) is also connected to the central control unit (18) that coordinates its movements with those of the swarm of robots (1). Preferably, the installation also includes a guide rail (15) on which the crane (13) moves in a horizontal direction. Thanks to this freedom of movement on the horizontal axis of the crane and the freedom of movement of the loading arm (14) it can reach any part of the construction to load objects and load robots (1) as described above.

In the embodiment of Figure 4 it is shown how the elevator (15) can move directly on the crane (13) in the vertical direction.

Claims

one . - Layered construction robot characterized by comprising:

-a storage tank (2) for construction material,

-a displacement means (3) configured to allow the robot to move on a surface on which it is going to deposit a layer of construction material,

-a spill head (4) of construction material connected to the tank (2) and configured to extrude the construction material on the surface on which it travels,

-at least one battery (6) and at least one servomotor (5) linked to the displacement means (3),

-a control unit (7) configured to receive a signal with the instructions for displacement and pouring of material and configured to send said signal to the displacement means (3) and to the spill head (4).

2. - Layered construction robot according to claim 1 characterized in that the displacement means (3) comprise traction tracks.

3. - Layered construction robot according to claim 1 characterized in that it additionally comprises an arm with clamp (8) that is connected to the control unit (7) and configured to handle objects.

4. - Layered construction robot according to claim 1 characterized in that it additionally comprises positioning means (9) configured to guide the movement.

5. - Layered construction robot according to claim 4 characterized in that the positioning means (9) are ultrasonic sensors.

6. - Layered construction robot according to claim 4 characterized in that the positioning means (9) are wireless beacons.

7. - Layered construction robot according to claim 1 characterized in that it comprises wireless communication means (10) of an external signal configured to receive instructions from an external control device and send them to the control unit (7).

8. - Layered construction robot according to claim 1 characterized in that the pouring head (4) is a pumping system associated with a Cartesian robot.

9. - Layered construction robot according to claim 1 characterized in that it comprises a second storage tank of binder material and the pouring head (4) is connected to this second tank.

10. - Construction installation comprising at least one robot as described in any one of claims 1 to 9 characterized in that it comprises at least:

- a storage tank (1 1) for building material with at least one connecting pipe (12) configured to allow the construction material to exit,

-a central control unit (18) configured to send a signal with instructions for moving and pouring material to the control unit (7) of the robots (1).

eleven . - Construction installation according to claim 10 characterized in that it additionally comprises a crane (13) having at least one loading arm (14) and which is connected to the central control unit (18).

12. - Construction installation according to claim 1, characterized in that it further comprises a guide rail (15) on which the crane (13) moves in a horizontal direction.

13. - Construction installation according to claim 10 characterized in that it additionally comprises a storage tank of binder material with at least a second connecting pipe configured to allow the binder material to exit.

14. - Construction installation according to claim 10 or 13, characterized in that it additionally comprises an elevator (15) that moves vertically and comprises first connections to the connecting pipes (12) of the storage tank for construction material and to the second connection pipe of the storage tank of binder material and second connections (16) configured to join the tanks of the robots (1).

15. - Construction installation according to claim 14, characterized in that the elevator (15) comprises elevator positioning means configured to regulate the vertical movement of the elevator (15) to a position facing the robot (1).

16. - Construction installation according to claims 1 and 13 characterized in that the elevator (15) moves on the crane (13) in the vertical direction.

17. - Construction installation according to claim 13 characterized in that the elevator (15) comprises a central battery and a retractable tube (17) configured to connect the central battery and the robot (1).