The BauFeSt 4.0 project aims to establish a foundation for overcoming challenges in steel construction, including the shortage of skilled workers, cost and time pressures, through the use of flexible automation systems in assembly. The integration of robotic systems is crucial for competitiveness, but traditional approaches may lead to fit errors, welding defects, and production waste. Current handling of inevitable component tolerances requires complex measurement and information processing systems. The project seeks to overcome these challenges by implementing flexible process control through efficient tolerance capture and processing, applicable to both industrial robots and existing machines. The development involves defining information for seamless collaboration among different machines in steel production, focusing on measurement and tolerance information as well as process feedback. The project explores alternatives for storing and exchanging additional information from manufacturing processes. The Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) and Web Ontology Language (OWL) are investigated for information storage and cross-domain exchange. The project outlines the necessary information for various manufacturing processes, emphasizing bidirectional information flow for quality control, evaluations, and optimizations. Real demonstrators, such as a robot-controlled drilling and plasma cutting, validate the developed concepts. The future focus involves further validating and developing the systematics for a holistic description of information and processes in steel production. The ontology-based approach allows integration of additional concepts and information sources, fostering collaboration for standardizing information transfer and data storage. These insights lay the groundwork for future developments in steel construction automation and digitization, enhancing safety, productivity, and worker incentives while providing significant added value throughout the construction value chain.
The research project was funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) via the German Federation of Industrial Research Association (AiF).
The project was led by Univ.-Prof. Dr. techn. Sigrid Brell-Cokcan and managed by Victoria Jung. We would like to thank all researchers Victoria Jung, Lukas Kirner, Christoph Heuer and our media-team: Simon Laprell, Marica Vitt.
We are thrilled to share that our incredible team has once again shown its invaluable spirit at the Open Campus Week 2023. The hard work, dedication, and collaboration that went into making this event a resounding success cannot be overstated. From planning and preparation to real demonstrator execution, every team member poured their heart and soul into making this event unforgettable. A huge shoutout and thank you to our team members who worked tirelessly behind the scenes, our event partners for their invaluable support, and all the attendees who joined us and made the event truly special. The IP RWTH Aachen University and Center Construction Robotics team had a lot of fun and we can’t wait to see what we will accomplish together in the future. Thank you to everyone who contributed.
Sven Stumm, Victoria Jung, Thomas Adams, Barış Çokcan, Burak Y., Iremnur Tokac Celikyay, Georg Theisen, Radwa Abdelhafez, Fabian Classen, Julia Weishäupl, Marit Zöcklein, GİZEM EREKİNCİ ATLAN, Hyung Joo Lee, Ajith Krishnan, Ethan Kerber, Emre Ergin, Görkem Can Ertemli, Doğa Su Kıralioğlu, Stefanie Steinfeld, Chu Han Wu, Jyrki Oraskari, Nico Horsch, Philippe Gülpen, David Lukert, Shady Saleh, Simon Laprell, Christoph Heuer, Lukas Kirner, Heinrich Knitt, Carsten Kamp, Jan Luca Fahrendholz, Hisham Farid, Sigrid Brell-Cokcan
The EU research project „Target-X” led by the Fraunhofer Institute of Production Technology IPT aims at the testing of new technologies for 5G and its successor 6G. With 5G technology becoming more common, the project focusses on continued research and development for industries such as automotive, construction, energy, and manufacturing. For this purpose, the Target-X consortium seeks up to 100 research partners to participate in the project, with a total available funding of six million euros. The TARGET-X project aims to demonstrate, validate, and evaluate the potential of 5G and 6G in the real environments of end-user industries. Therefore, the project will focus on real-time communication, localization, interactivity, the digital twin, and sensor networks. All developed solutions will undergo an evaluation based on metrics that consider sustainability, safety and security as well as privacy. The central goal is to create new business models and an assessment framework for evaluating the economic and social benefits of the developed solutions. The activities of the TARGET-X community, with the participation of up to 100 additional partners, will create a Europe-wide network of small and medium-sized enterprises, startups, and IT and OT partners. This network will cooperate in the further development of the technologies, thereby create a medium-term impact
Interested companies can apply with their research topics for funding and collaboration in two cycles of open calls. The first application cycle will be open from May to July 2023 whereas the second cycle will last from November 2023 until January 2024. After the selection of finalists, the funding will correspondingly be distributed in two phases as well. The first funding phase is scheduled to run from January to July 2024. The second funding phase follows directly from August 2024 to April 2025. The interdisciplinary consortium, comprising companies and research institutions from various fields Is convinced that Cascade funding promotes participation and thus accelerates the development of new hardware, software, services, and business models.
As unique feature, the Target-X consortium partners have access to five testbeds located at two of Europe’s largest test facilities for their research and development. The Reference Construction Site of the Center Construction Robotics alone contributes over 4000m² of living lab area. In this environment RWTH University institutes as well as industry partners have the chance to test and evaluate innovative processes, products and concepts under real-life conditions.
More information: www.target-x.eu
Partners in the TARGET-X project
Fraunhofer Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V., Deutschland (project coordination); Ericsson GmbH, Germany; RWTH Aachen University RWTH, Germany; IDIADA AUTOMOTIVE TECHNOLOGY SA, Spain; Center Construction Robotics, Germany; FUNDACIO PRIVADA I2CAT, INTERNET I INNOVACIO DIGITAL A CATALUNYA, Spain; Marposs SpA, Italy; FundingBox Accelerator, Poland; Ericsson Arastirma Gelistirme ve Bilisim Hizmetleri Anonim Sirketi, Turkey; 5G Communications for Future Industry Verticals SL, Spain; Marposs Monitoring Solutions GmbH, Germany; Neutroon, Spain; Mitsubishi Electric Europe B.V. German Branch, Germany; FundingBox Communities, Spain; Qualcomm CDMA Technologies GmbH, Germany
Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or of the granting authority. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
Another project was successfully launched in 2023 at the Reference Construction Site in Aachen:
Together with the project sponsor TÜV Rheinland and seven other consortium partners, we are working on the EConoM research project - funded as part of the “Innovative Network Technologies” programme by the Federal Ministry of Digital Affairs and Transport. In the EConoM project, 5G, AI and edge computing are being further developed on the basis of the requirements of the construction industry, with the aim of advancing or enabling the optimization and automation of the construction site.
Compared to the development of other sectors, the construction industry is still characterised by a low level of digitalisation. With a construction volume of 488 billion euros in 2021, the construction industry has the highest development potential in the areas of digitalisation and automation (source: German Institute for Economic Research). However, the use of digital tools on the construction site itself often fails due to non-existent or insufficient IT infrastructure. This is where the use of edge computing in conjunction with nomadic networks can bring a breakthrough, as they enable the real-time processing of large amounts of data generated on the construction site.
In order to secure the German and European construction industry and to advance Germany as a location for technology and innovation, research into and development of the automation of construction sites are indispensable. The combination of key technologies from 5G campus networks, edge computing, artificial intelligence and Digital Twin enables the automation and further optimisation of processes within the construction site.
For more information, visit https://www.econom.one/ and https://www.linkedin.com/company/econom-one/about/
We are looking forward to the collaboration with Fraunhofer Fokus, Fraunhofer Heinrich-Hertz-Institut, HOCHTIEF Vicon GmbH, planen-bauen 4.0 GmbH, Uniberg GmbH, Zeppelin Rental, Construction Robotics GmbH and TÜV Rheinland
We are looking for highly motivated people for teaching, research and development in digital construction & construction robotics.
We are working on follow-up IoC (Internet of Construction) projects - cyber-physical systems and further innovative technologies in communication and network control that aim to improve the efficiency, safety and sustainability of the construction industry through the use of automation and robotics. Our team is committed to develop and implement in Europe`s first large scale test bed at Campus Melaten Reference Construction Site beeing part of the 5G Industry Campus Europe and collaborating with industry and research partners.
We are looking for a qualified Architect/Civil Engineer with experience in teaching as well as organisation and management to organise and manage the Master “Construction & Robotics” as well as support in teaching PDF here.
We are looking for a research assistant who has experience in the acquisition, processing and management of industrial and research projects to take over the set-up and implementation of real test scenarios on the reference construction site Campus Melaten and has intentions for a doctorate in the field of construction robotics. PDF here.
We look forward to meeting you!