Ground-Based Automated Construction Of Droxel Structures: An Experimental Approach

This manuscript presents a recently developed automated robotic system for the deployment of block-based structures. The main structural component used for the construction of the specimens is the droxel: a universal building component recently developed by the authors. The herein presented work builds on such research to create new software and hardware capabilities to deploy droxel-based structures autonomously, by means of ground robotic operations. First, the paper describes the designed mechanical components and the experimental setup. Then, the main features of the ad-hoc designed software tools will be presented, together with the salient results of the experimental campaign. Different experiments on various types of structures (e.g., shelters and bridges) constructed by means of an ABB IRB120 robotic arm will be presented and quantification of the efficiency of the operations will be discussed. Quantitative description of the stability of the structures under construction, as well as capability of deploying full scale versions of different structural system is then discussed and conclusions and recommendations drawn.