The Development of Mix-Reality Interface and Synchronous Robot Fabrication for the Collaborative Construction

The construction field in Taiwan is facing the serious issues about the worker shortage and low birthrate. The intervention of collaborative robots brings one of the possible ways to solve those problems. In this paper, we propose the ROCOS system (Robot Collaboration System) to integrate the mix-reality interface and robot fabrication for the collaborative construction between the designer and the robotic arm. ROCOS system consists of three parts including (1) Mix-reality interface, (2) Iterative design, and (3) Collaborative construction. In the MR interface, the designer builds the BIM-based environment before the collaborative design with the robot. The ROCOS system provides a MR layout method that the designer can use the Oculus handles and MR glasses to layout the real space and turn it into MR space. After the MR layout is built, the designer starts the iterative design through the ROCOS’s design interface. The designer uses the MR handles to draw multiple virtual sticks to build the stick-weaving structure. The ROCOS system simulates the assembly path of robotic arm for each stick to make sure no confliction during the fabrication process. Then the ROCOS system translates the simulation into robotic arm’s commands and deliver it to the robot control system. Finally, the robot control system drives the robotic arm to grip the real stick and assemble it to the corresponding position. This process can be run multiple times until the designer finish his iterative design. The loop of iterative design and robot fabrication achieves the collaborative construction between designer and robot.