Robots Designed to Save Lives of Construction Workers

The autonomous robots are designed to climb scaffolding and buildings by wrapping around a poll or beam and then rolling upward via an oscillating joint motion. Using built-in sensors and cameras, the robots would then inspect the structures or handle other dangerous tasks now done by humans, said Dennis Hong, director of Virginia Tech’s Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory and the faculty adviser on the project.

The robots are each roughly three feet in length and use a movement unique even in nature. “These are really wicked cool robots,” Hong said.

The need for autonomous tools in the construction field is great. Hong cites a 2006 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report that tracked the workplace deaths of 1,226 construction workers in 2006, an increase of 3 percent from 2005. The same report listed 809 deaths as a result of falls from raised structures such as scaffolding, Hong said.

“Unlike inchworm-type gaits often being developed for serpentine robot locomotion, this novel climbing gait requires the serpentine robot to wrap around the structure in a helical shape, and twist its whole body to climb or descend by rolling up or down the structure,” Hong said. He added that the robots “will serve as a practical inspection tool for construction sites without putting workers in harm’s way.”

The robots were developed by mechanical engineering students Gabriel Goldman of Richmond, Va., and Nick Thayer of Poquoson, Va., who are both currently pursuing mechanical engineering doctoral degrees at Virginia Tech. The remaining student developers, all of which are recent graduates, are Michael Bloom, Florian Böss, Cory Kaser, Vic Kassoff, David McDowell, Spencer Patton, and Jeff Philis.

Team RoMeLa scored the cash prize of 1 million won (won is the currency of South Korea) with its robots, the HyDRAS-Ascent (Hyper-redundant Discrete Robotic Articulated Serpentine for climbing), the HyDRAS-Ascent II, and CIRCA (Climbing Inspection Robot with Compressed Air), at the 2008 International Symposium on Educational Excellence 2008 competition, which took place at Seoul National University of Technology in South Korea.

The robots debuted this past spring and already have won several awards, including CIRCA taking first place with a cash award of $10,500 for the 2008 CAGI Innovation Award conducted by the Compressed Air and Gas Institute, and HyDRAS winning second place with a cash award of $2,500 at the 2008 ASME Student Safety Engineering Design Competition.