Hello, robot worker
Zhang Jianjun, our reporter
The "robot co-workers" from sci-fi movies are becoming a reality.
On the construction site of the Jinping project of Country Garden in Shantou, Guangdong, after an industrial technician assisted the robot to add tile adhesive, he selected the work area on the tablet computer and issued an instruction. The robot quickly started to the designated position to carry out the autonomous brick laying construction operation, and the movements were skillful and quick. , a tile was pasted in less than a minute; in the putty grinding work area, after receiving the instructions from the industrial technician, the putty grinding robot immediately started the high-efficiency grinding operation, and synchronously reported the completion progress of the operation...
On December 30, 2021, on the site of this project, 8 construction robots, 6 transportation and loading robots, shuttled through 5 centralized workstations, and successfully realized multi-machine collaborative decoration construction for the first time.
Since then, the multi-machine construction system of the intelligent construction system built by Guangdong Bozhilin Robot Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Bozhilin"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Country Garden Group, has been accepted.
This means that Bozhilin has taken another big step towards the goal of intelligent construction.
Anchor Robot Track
"my country's construction industry has created many world firsts, but it also faces problems such as poor product performance, huge waste of resources, prominent safety problems, serious environmental pollution, and low production efficiency." said Ding Lieyun, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
At present, my country's construction industry is large but not excellent. Most enterprises are still at the level of "moving bricks, tying steel bars, pouring concrete, and installing formwork", and the overall application of advanced technology and engineering technology is low.
At the same time, due to the serious aging of migrant workers engaged in the construction industry and the reluctance of young people to enter the construction site, problems such as labor shortage and rising labor costs continue to intensify.
How to use digital technology to transform the construction industry?
Yang Guoqiang, chairman of the board of Country Garden Group, a former construction worker, believes that robots are a good choice whether considering efficiency, quality, safety or cost.
Anchoring the robot track, in July 2018, Guangdong Bozhilin Robot Co., Ltd. was established.
The company is positioned as an industry-leading provider of intelligent construction solutions, focusing on the research and development, production and application of construction robots, BIM (Building Information Modeling) digitization, and new building industrialization.
It is hoped that through technological innovation and model innovation, we will explore new paths for high-quality sustainable development of the industry and help the transformation and upgrading of the construction industry.
"We need to liberate construction workers from heavy, repetitive, and high-risk jobs, and part of the work will be done by robots." Yang Guoqiang said.
Based on this vision, Bozhilin's technology research and development is rooted in practice, with great emphasis on practicality.
"There are many processes involved in building a house. We use robots to replace the most arduous and tiring work for workers, as well as those with more serious pollution, such as latex paint, putty brushing, etc." Bozhilin Robotics and Xu Anpeng, director of the Intelligent Product Research Institute, said.
"Robots are accumulating surging power. In the future, robots should walk around on construction sites, and we will produce houses on construction sites like cars." Yang Guoqiang said.
Leading construction innovation
It sounds incredible that real estate companies are entering robots.
In fact, at the beginning of Bozhilin's establishment, there were some different voices from the outside world: the research and development of robots belongs to the high-tech industry, and the real estate industry does not have this gene; there are also voices that the investment in scientific and technological research and development is too high, and the risks are too high.
Xu Anpeng said, "When it comes to robots, most people think of industrial robots. This is the most mature category in the field of robots. In the field of construction robots, the world has always been in a blank state."
In fact, due to the harsh operating environment, large differences in scenarios, and complex and changeable construction surfaces, construction robots are quite different from industrial robots and other products in terms of core components and core algorithm requirements.
In the absence of experience to follow, the difficulty of technical research can be imagined.
"In the digital transformation of the construction industry, there is no experience in intelligent construction to learn from." According to Xu Anpeng, Bozhilin's team has conducted a lot of field research for robot research and development. Taking the research and development of concrete construction robots as an example, from March 2019 to In June, the team spent 3 months to improve the robot, and finally increased the single operation area from 10 square meters per time to more than 2 hours of continuous operation, and completed the leveling work of more than 100 square meters.
Behind the results are the team members' day and night research, because the concrete construction time is not fixed, sometimes in the middle of the night, the team members fell asleep while waiting at the construction site; Entering the construction site to test, the day will dawn... Bozhilin's R&D team has spent a very difficult period of exploration.
At the end of 2019, some construction robots can already automate construction on construction sites.
At present, Bozhilin has realized the construction robot from independent research and development, small batch production to engineering testing, engineering services and batch commercialization, and has initially formed a whole-system solution for intelligent construction covering the entire life cycle of construction projects.
Bozhilin is developing 46 construction robots, 18 of which have been commercialized, including exterior wall spraying robots, building cleaning robots, interior wall grinding robots, screw hole blocking robots, ground leveling robots, and underground garage spraying Robots, floor coating robots, measuring robots, etc.
Zhang Huachen, a scientific research representative and senior algorithm engineer of Bozhilin, introduced that Bozhilin now has 8 research institutes including Construction Robot Research Institute, Basic Technology Research Institute, Intelligent Technology Research Institute, and Engineering Application Research Institute, with nearly 3,000 R&D personnel; The key components and basic sharing technologies of robots developed by the company cover eight core modules of construction robots, among which technologies such as navigation, vision, and multi-machine scheduling fill the gaps in the field of construction robots.
In addition, breakthroughs from "0 to 1" have been achieved in sub-fields such as intelligent evaluation of construction quality and smart construction site supervision.
"By the end of 2021, Bozhilin has submitted 3,468 valid patent applications and 1,670 patents have been authorized. These technical patents have constituted Bozhilin's core competitiveness and will also become Bozhilin's largest technical asset." Xu Anpeng said.
Help the industry to upgrade
Is it reliable to build a house by a robot?
In September 2020, the first batch of Bozhilin construction robots have entered the construction site for "jobs".
At the construction site of the Country Garden project in Jinan, Shandong, the measuring robot demonstrated its expertise in precise positioning and accurate measurement.
How long does it take to measure a room?
"Usually, the construction quality inspection of a single room requires three or four people to measure little by little with a ruler, which takes at least an hour. The measurement process is cumbersome and time-consuming," said the project construction staff.
The measurement robot applies advanced AI measurement algorithm processing technology, which can complete the actual measurement of a single room within two to three minutes. The measurement effect is more objective and accurate than the human eye, and reports can be automatically generated according to the measurement results.
At the construction site of Country Garden Shunde Fengtong Garden Project, in addition to ordinary workers, there are also "robot workers".
The "Tall" intelligent follow-up placing machine stands on the working surface, continuously pumping out concrete and pouring out the standard layer of the entire project; the concrete robot is leveling and troweling; the exterior wall spraying robot is working at high altitude... …This is the only pilot project in China that applies construction robots in batches to the engineering construction process.
In July 2021, the two experience practices of this project, "measurement robots and intelligent measurement tools" and "construction robots and intelligent construction machinery and equipment", were selected into the first batch of replicable experience practices for the coordinated development of intelligent construction and new building industrialization by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.
……
Robot house building has become a very eye-catching picture on the construction sites of many Country Garden projects.
As of the end of December 2021, Bozhilin construction robots have served more than 350 projects in 25 provinces, with a cumulative application construction area of over 7 million square meters.
"Compared with ordinary labor, construction robots rely on stronger computing power, and are more reasonable and scientific in the planning of the utilization of building materials, and can achieve lean construction." Xu Anpeng introduced that the large-scale application of construction robots can not only ensure the construction projects of housing enterprises on time , quality and quantity delivery, and can further improve construction efficiency.
Take the "BIM+FMS+WMS+Construction Robot" (Building Information Model + Robot Collaborative Management System + Warehouse Management System + Construction Robot) multi-machine construction system of the Jinping Project of Country Garden in Shantou, Guangdong as an example. Chief Logistics Officer" and "Material Management Master" can realize automatic scheduling of logistics robots, automatic control of intelligent elevators, accurate management and data monitoring of material consumption.
It can accurately manage the consumption of materials on the construction site to each building, each floor, and each apartment type, and clearly record the number of coatings and tiles distributed and used, so as to achieve refined management.
Today, many projects of Country Garden have used construction robots to complete processes such as high risk factors, heavy operations, and repetitive operations in construction, and have accumulated a lot of landing experience.
"Construction robots still have a long way to go. Since there is no mature experience to learn from, every step needs to be explored and developed." Xu Anpeng said.
Bozhilin will develop more products that meet the landing scenarios, establish an industrial Internet platform that runs through the entire life cycle of buildings, provide intelligent construction solutions for the entire construction industry chain, and promote the industrialization and upgrading of the construction industry.
The revolution in the construction industry led by "robots building houses" may be coming.
Zhang Jianjun