Digitalization of earth-based construction processes
Motivation and research problem
Earth-based structures have a very low environmental impact and provide a healthy indoor climate to inhabitants, thus representing sustainable alternatives to conventional structures. However, labor-intensive, time-consuming processes and the requirement of manual building skills restrict the productivity of earth construction processes, which are based on a centuries-old state of practice. To overcome the current difficulties, principles of additive manufacturing (AM) and smart sensing technologies may be coupled with earth construction processes towards so-called “earth-based AM”, increasing the quality and advancing the productivity. Through digitalizing earth construction processes, earth-based AM has the potential to transform the current practice for cob, adobe, and rammed earth into a smart manufacturing process. Evidently, to efficiently conduct earth-based AM, a formal description is necessary, which allows adequately gathering, storing, analyzing, and describing the information required for earth-based AM. Furthermore, digital data models, providing the basis for construction robots to “print” earth-based structures without information loss, must be extended or developed anew.
Research objectives and expected results
The proposed research project aims to advance the digitalization of earth-based AM, or “earth printing”, by providing a formal conceptual basis for a new methodology for data modeling in earth-based AM. The methodology will generically define earth-based structures and the overall process of earth-based AM. The methodology, although valid for additive manufacturing in general, is expected to bridge information gaps in the digital workflow of earth printing without information loss, enabling
- Modeling of the parameters and the semantic relationships within earth-based AM (process parameters), including sensing technologies that support process planning, process monitoring, and process control,
- Integration of earth-based materials into the digital workflow of earth-based AM (“digital material”), including material composition, material properties, and material behavior relevant to extrudability and buildability (material parameters), and
- Instantiation of the digital models (based on geometry parameters) for designing, simulating, and printing earth-based structures.
The methodology will be verified using a verification concept for model checking and reasoning to be proposed for earth-based AM, building upon formal logic, to increase the quality and the productivity of earth-based AM. For validation, use cases will be defined and experimental tests will be conducted using a robotic printing system. As a result, the outcome of this project is expected to provide a formal basis that semantically describes all information relevant to earth-based AM, including structures and processes, to further advance earth-based AM towards smart manufacturing.
Contact
Professor Dr. Kay Smarsly
Hamburg University of Technology
Institute of Digital and Autonomous Construction
Blohmstraße 15
21079 Hamburg
Germany
Email: kay.smarsly@tuhh.de