Bricklaying Method for rolLock or Soldier Courses with 4DOF Robotic Arms

Abstract

Bricklaying is one of the traditional construction technologies that can be easily automatized in case of some circumstances. There are many attempts already to lay bricks with robotic arms or with other kinds of automated systems. Typical lifting and automated systems in the construction industry apply four degrees of freedom: movement along the three axes and turning around the vertical one. The automated construction of regular straight, curved, or even special brick courses is not challenging anymore. However, elements changing their typical horizontal position in the pallet to a vertical or to an inclining one during the bricklaying process need more freedom of movement hence a somewhat different toolset for automatization. Among traditional decoration techniques of the brick walls, the so-called rollock, or soldier courses, are frequently used as closing features of the fare-faced brick walls. Still, the 4DOF equipment systems are not applicable for this feature without further extensions. With the help of 5-6DOF robotic arms or an end-effector that provides turning around a horizontal axis, it is easy to overcome this problem. In this paper, an additional option is analyzed. A simple tilting tool is tested for enabling a given 4DOF system to change the horizontal position of the bricks without further extension.