Robots to Re-Construction — The Roadmap to Robotized Asbestos Removal

Europe has paid a high price for asbestos, with over 100 000 related deaths. First in line in the fight to free buildings from asbestos contamination, workers in the construction sector could soon find a helping hand in the form of an AI-piloted robotic system.

The constant and multifaceted evolution of society has left very few industries unchanged. For most sectors, this has meant moving towards increased automation. Most, but not all. One unyielding sector has largely stayed true to its old ways: the construction sector. For the past 200 years, the same repetitive, standardised and physically challenging construction tasks have been performed by workers with their own two hands. But this could change soon, as emerging voices - some of which decided to stand together under the Bots2ReC (Robots to Re-Construction) project - have been calling for the sector to embrace automation. The reasoning behind Bots2ReC is simple: some tasks are simply too hazardous for humans to perform, and machines could easily replace them. Besides the exposure, some processes or the materials handled in those processes generate health hazards in the form of dust, vibration, noise or toxic substances. It is precisely for these tasks that we could expect great benefits from - and also show the massive potential of - automation to achieve sustainable socio-ecological improvements.

With its focus on asbestos, the EU H2020 Bots2ReC project is focusing on reducing the future health burden on workers. There is little doubt that the cost of the technology will easily be counterbalanced by its high social benefit and economic efficiency. This books presents the findings and results of the Bots2ReC project, and should be useful for Construction and Robotics Engineers, as well as graduate level students and researchers active in these fields.

After completing his mechanical engineering studies at RWTH Aachen University in 1984, Prof. Corves worked as an assistant lecturer also at RWTH Aachen University, where received his doctorate in 1989. His thesis dealt with the kinematics and dynamics of industrial robots within a Collaborative Research Centre funded by the prestigious German Research Foundation. After working at RWTH Aachen University as a Postdoc in the position of Chief-Engineer until 1991, he took a research and development position in industry in the field of special machine construction in Germany and Switzerland. In 2000, he was appointed university professor and director of the Institute for Mechanism Science, Machine Dynamics and Robotics at RWTH Aachen University, where his teaching and research is concentrating on the aforementioned institute topics. Prof. Corves has lead numerous national and European research activities such as Bots2ReC with more than 400 publications containing books, journal and conference papers covering different topics such as robotics, cam mechanism, glass machinery, pneumatic mechanisms, computer-aided graphical analysis and synthesis in mechanism theory, mechatronic development and machine design strategy. Since 1987 Prof. Corves is member of the German Association of Mechanical Engineers (VDI), where he holds positions as the chairman of the VDI-Scientific Board on "Gears, Mechanisms and Machine Elements", the chairman of the VDI Committee "Mechanisms for handling and manipulation" and member of the VDI Board of the Society of Process and Product Design. Additionally he is member of the German Society of Glass Technology (DGG), where he serves as member of the DGG Board of Directors and is engaged in the DGG technical committee FA IV "Glass forming technology and quality assurance". Additionally he acts as the National Chair of the German section of the International Federation for the Promotion of Mechanism and Machine Science (IFToMM) where he is also member of the Technical Committee "Linkages & Mechanical Controls" and the Permanent Commission for the History of Mechanism and Machine Science. In 2013 Prof. Corves received the Honorary Doctorate from Polytechnic University of Timisoara, Romania and in 2017 the Medal of Honor of the VDI.

After completing his mechanical engineering studies at Leibniz University Hannover in 1989, Prof. Hüsing worked as an assistant lecturer at RWTH Aachen University, where he received his doctorate in 1995.His thesis dealt with tolerance analysis and syntheses of linkages. After his doctoral thesis, he worked at RWTH Aachen University as a Postdoc in the position of Chief-Engineer, senior lecturer and senior research associate. Since 2015, he is professor at the RWTH Aachen and deputy head of the Institute of Mechanism Theory, Machine Dynamics and Robotics. Prof. Hüsing has led many national and international research projects. He had initiated and co-led the European research project Bots2ReC. He has published about 200 papers on kinematics, dynamics and robotics in conferences, books and journals.

Tobias Haschke began his mechanical engineering studies at RWTH Aachen University in 2010 and completed them as Master of Science in spring 2016. During his studies, he focused on "Development and Design" and was already working as a student assistant at Prof. Corves' chair in the research area of robotics. His master thesis was about the generic design and analysis of multiple redundant parallel manipulators. After his studies of mechanical engineering, he started working as a Research Assistant at the Institute of Mechanism Theory, Machine Dynamics and Robotics and has been working on the EU research project Bots2Rec from the beginning. Therein, he mainly dealt with the topics of dynamic task planning, central robot control and software architecture. In January 2019, he took over the leadership of the research project Bots2ReC and at the same time, he became group leader of the robotics group at the chair of Prof. Corves. In further research projects, Tobias Haschke is engaged in the agile development of cyber-physical systems and the automation of logistic scenarios using AGVs. Furthermore, he is in charge of the research area "Construction Robotics" at the institute of Prof. Corves and Prof. Hüsing.