Streamlining design-to-manufacturing for assembly-based robotics in wood panel framing tasks of industrialized construction: Introducing a BIM-to-BoT (B2B) framework

Abstract

Robotics hold immense potential to transform the industrialized construction (IC) sector by enhancing productivity, drawing on its similarities with the manufacturing industry. However, the unique nature of construction projects and the demand for customized building designs present substantial technological hurdles for incorporating robotics into IC activities. The time and cost burdens of the project- and task-driven reprogramming of robotic systems can outweigh the perceived benefits of robotics-based automation. Those burdens are further compounded by the notable lack of research addressing the technical collaboration issues between virtual design and construction software, specifically Building Information Modeling (BIM) tools, and commercially available robotic software suites. This research aims to promote the adoption of construction robotics by streamlining the design-to-manufacturing processes of framing tasks in IC. The proposed framework is integrated into a software platform that establishes a collaborative environment for BIM and assembly-based robotics in panel framing tasks of IC, referred to as BIM-to-Bot (B2B). This platform uses architectural BIM models from Revit and automatically converts building design information into shop drawings and robotics-based manufacturing procedures for a multi-robot system designed specifically for framing tasks in IC. The proposed framework was evaluated through a case study revealing significant efficiency improvements. The drafting process improved by 93.33%, and the robotic programming process improved by 88.66% when using the proposed method compared to manual drafting and programming, resulting in an 89.34% time savings in BIM-to-Robot processes. By enabling the integration of robotics into panel framing tasks, this research bridges the crucial gap between building designs and robotic assembly. The enhanced efficiency associated with the proposed streamlined design-to-manufacturing processes is expected to pave the way for the broader adoption of robotics in the construction industry, heralding a new era of IC.