**2.3 Tele-Existence & Tele-Control**

Concepts of Tele-Existence and Tele-Control to be used in the field of construction and building technology were advocated by Prof. Susumu Tachi at the University of Tokyo, already in 1980s. Tele-existence can be seen concept of advanced Tele-operation. Real world applications for tele-operated construction machinery as e.g. excavators and trucks had been developed in Japan since the Mount Unzen incident in 1991. A Vulcan eruption covered a large area with dust which would be health threatening for humans removing it. Thus a number of construction machines with the ability to be remote controlled from a save place had to be developed. Mt. Fugen is the main peak of Unzen Volcano, which is the collective name of a group of volcanic cones constituting the main part of the Shimabara Peninsula. Its phreatic eruption on 17 November 1990 caused a number of pyroclastic flows, which killed 44 people and destroyed 820 houses. The area around Mt. Fugen was deadly damaged by debris flow and pyroclastic flow. The restoration works to remove much stone and sand and the bank protection works were done by unmanned construction machines in order to avoid the risk of further catastrophes. Tele-operators manipulated machines from the operation room, which was more than 2km apart. Wearing special goggles, operators were watching 3D-images of the site sent by cameras equipped with machines. The efficiency of these remote-controlled works was estimated to be 70 percent of usual works [9]. Due to this incident Japanese researchers and construction companies realized the importance of teleoperation technology.

Today intelligent excavators with the ability for tele-operation and even partly autonomous operation capability are under development in the R&D sections of all major Japanese and Korean contractors. Further Japanese researchers and construction companies have tried to control construction machinery by teleported humanoids (Figure 02). This approach has the advantage that standard construction machinery can be used without modification.

Tele-existence and Tele-control can not only be used for 1:1 real time control of a single robot or intelligent construction machine by one assigned operator. With rising degree of autonomy of the robot systems used the tele-operator becomes a sort of supervisor able to control multiple construction machines at once. Already in the 80s the vision of multiple cooperating construction robots are operated by a single human supervisor from a central existed (Figure 03). Today indeed more and more researchers succeed in developing fully functioning and highly autonomous construction machines that can be tele-supervised (Figure 03).

Exoskeleton and Humanoid Robotic Technology in Construction and Built Environment 117

Society of Civil Engineers, Construction Robotics Commission, Prof. Shigeyuki Obayashi, 1985

http://www.kajima.co.jp/gallery/civil\_kajima/bousai/bousai01.html, last visited 24/07/2011. Fig. 4. Real world applications for tele-operated construction machinery as e.g. excavators and trucks had been developed in Japan since the Mount Unzen incident in 1991. A Vulcan eruption covered a large area with dust which would be health threatening for humans removing it. Thus a number of construction machines with the ability to be remote controlled from a save place had to be developed. Kajima Corporation, Japan, 1991

from a central box, Vision Sketch Japanese Research Institute, 1980

Kajima, Pictures taken form website:

Fig. 3. Multiple cooperating construction robots are operated by a single human supervisor

Copyright T. Bock

Fig. 2. Left: Prof. S. Tachi, Tele-existence Mechanical Engineering Laboratory (MEL) and MITI, 1986; Middle and Right: Contol of Honda ASIMO Humanoid; Tokyu Construction, Kawasaki Heavy Industries,and AIST

116 The Future of Humanoid Robots – Research and Applications

Fig. 2. Left: Prof. S. Tachi, Tele-existence Mechanical Engineering Laboratory (MEL) and MITI, 1986; Middle and Right: Contol of Honda ASIMO Humanoid; Tokyu Construction,

Copyright T. Bock

Kawasaki Heavy Industries,and AIST

Society of Civil Engineers, Construction Robotics Commission, Prof. Shigeyuki Obayashi, 1985

Fig. 3. Multiple cooperating construction robots are operated by a single human supervisor from a central box, Vision Sketch Japanese Research Institute, 1980

Kajima, Pictures taken form website: http://www.kajima.co.jp/gallery/civil\_kajima/bousai/bousai01.html, last visited 24/07/2011.

Fig. 4. Real world applications for tele-operated construction machinery as e.g. excavators and trucks had been developed in Japan since the Mount Unzen incident in 1991. A Vulcan eruption covered a large area with dust which would be health threatening for humans removing it. Thus a number of construction machines with the ability to be remote controlled from a save place had to be developed. Kajima Corporation, Japan, 1991

Exoskeleton and Humanoid Robotic Technology in Construction and Built Environment 119

Energy Supply is a crucial issue in developing exoskeleton and humanoid robotic applications for construction and building technology. Unlike to robotic applications in other industries, many tools and assistive devices need to be independent from connecting cables. However, battery packs necessary to supply energy for the actuators represent heavy load. Thus, on the one hand the battery systems need to be developed so that they support mobility and wear-ability of robotic systems but on the other hand robotic applications and

Only interdisciplinary cooperation can handle the complexity associated with advanced man-robot cooperation systems. Besides knowledge from fields related to robotics (electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and informatics), knowledge from various anthropological sciences as psychology, ergonomics, neuroscience and psychology is needed to design such systems [10]. Moreover, the blurring of borders between man and machine within a single system gives rise to philosophical and ethical questions. Finally, in order to receive subsidies from investing enterprises and to manage complex system developments, entrepreneurs with the ability to lead highly interdisciplinary teams and

In order to be able to design work tasks and application scenarios for exoskeletons and humanoids in construction and building technology we classify robotic systems according to system complexity. With complex systems we mean systems that consist of a number of subsystems and sub-elements. Accordingly, element technologies are basic technologies. They can be applied as standalone systems or combined as sub-elements to more complex subsystems. Subsystems denote e.g. partial exoskeletons (exoskeleton for lower body part/feet, Exoskeleton for upper body part). A total system consists of several sub-systems; here we mean e.g. total exoskeletons or mobility robots. Autonomous robot systems (humanoid robots, service robots) and distributed robot systems can operate highly autonomous and are able to support robot service on city scale. They stand for highly complex robot systems built up by

multitude of element technologies, subsystems and autonomous robot systems.

systems have to be designed to be highly energy efficient.

**2.5 Energy supply** 

**2.6 Development complexity** 

1. **Element Technology** 

2. **Subsystems** 

3. **Total Systems**  Exoskeletons Mobility Robots 4. **Autonomous Robot Systems** 

Power Augmentation

Cognition Augmentation

Android/Humanoid Robots

5. **Distributed Robot Systems** 

Service Robots (Service in Buildings)

Town Robotics & Space Robotics

Sensing and Motion Augmentation

Assistive Devices and Partial Exoskeletons

complex innovations have to be educated.

**2.7 Categorization according to system complexity** 

Copyright T. Bock, Picture taken at Hanyang University, Laboratory of Prof. Han.

Fig. 5. Fully functioning system for tele-operation of robotic excavators, the excavators can operate on a high level of autonomy; the excavation process is monitored by separate laser module (picture right side) providing information to the robotic excavator. Hanyang University, Korea, 2011.
