Drone robotic construction: A methodology for simulating the construction performed by drones using virtual and augmented reality

Abstract

The economic and social impacts of robotic construction in Architecture, Engineering, and construction (AEC) are hard to assess and quantify without physical in situ testing, which is expensive and time-consuming This paper presents a methodology for the simulation of robotic construction technologies, namely drones, in a human-machine cooperation (HMC) using virtual (VR) and augmented (AR) reality environments. The developed methodology for robotic construction has the potential to be applied before the start of construction and to use real, virtual and augmented environments for robotic construction simulations. The application of such simulation methodology allows to test HMC scenarios and has the potential to increase construction precision while predicting both construction duration and cost. We present a review of the literature on drone and hybrid automatic construction solutions, as well as VR and AR construction simulations. Then a HMC simulation methodology is proposed and detailed. Three cases of application of the methodology are presented testing different approaches and cooperation scenarios in robotic construction. These cases are: (i) a drone construction in a real environment, (ii) a VR robotic construction simulation and (iii) an AR HMC. The application cases assess how the developed methodology is applicable to a set of different types of simulations that include different criteria.