Vision supported operation of a concrete spraying robot for tunneling work

In tunneling and mining construction work, heavy and large manipulators are used to spray liquid concrete on the walls. These manipulators are usually operated manually with simple control units allowing to control all actuators independently. In cooperation between industry and university, we have developed a novel automatic and human-oriented control system for such a manipulator. The new controller enables the operator to manipulate the tool in various modes, from purely manual actuation of single joints to vision-guided semi- and fully-automated spraying of selected tunnel areas. This paper presents the development and implementation of the control system designed for the concrete spraying robot Robojet(R).