Felix Amtsberg

We present the co-development and integration of a fully automated, multi-robot screw-press gluing cyber-physical production system for the prefabrication of a Multi-Story Timber Building System (MSTBS). The system integrates Hardware Setup, Task Planning, and Control Communication, ensuring compliance with the strict requirements for adhesive time. Two containerized robots collaborate in a shared workspace to execute glue application, component placement, and torque-controlled pressing. Precomputed kinematic reachability informs placement and setup co-optimization, followed by motion planning and hierarchical scheduling. A level-based barrier protocol enables safe, asynchronous execution with supervisory traceability and logging for quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC). A full-scale physical prototype validates the feasibility and traceability of this system, demonstrating a scalable and efficient pathway for industrially viable large-format timber slab prefabrication.

This paper presents a method for multi-human–robot collaborative timber construction using a head-mounted augmented reality system as the main facilitator. The AR system enables workers to visualise the construction tasks and intervene in otherwise automated robotic processes through task and motion control functions on the AR headset. To validate the method, we invited ten carpenters to participate in a dual-human–robot wall assembly case study. Each pair of workers worked together with a heavy-payload industrial robot, during which pre-planned errors were triggered, prompting them to utilise the AR interface to resolve these errors. The multi-user setup emulated construction environments that involve multiple humans, and the system incorporated real-time and asymmetrical visualisations of the tasks, robot and human partners to support multi-actor collaboration. The study demonstrates the potential of AR in connecting and empowering human workers in semi-automated prefabrication and construction processes. It presents new strategies to supervise, control and adjust otherwise stringent constraints of automated fabrication workflows, enabling experienced workers direct control over robotic motion and multi-actor prefabrication.

To meet climate change goals and respond to increased global urbanisation, the building industry needs to improve both its building technology and its design methods. Constrained urban environments and building stock extensions are challenges for standard timber construction. Co-design promises to better integrate disciplines and processes, promising smaller feedback loops for design iteration and building verification. This article describes the integrated design, fabrication, and construction processes of a timber building prototype as a case study for the application of co-design methods. Emphasis is placed on the development of design and engineering methods, fabrication and construction processes, and materials and building systems. The development of the building prototype builds on previous research in robotic fabrication (including prefabrication, task distribution, and augmented reality integration), agent-based modelling (ABM) for the design and optimisation of structural components, and the systematisation of timber buildings and their components. The results presented in this article include a functional example of co-design from which best practises may be extrapolated as part of an inductive approach to design research. The prototype, with its co-designed process and resultant flat ceilings, integrated services, wide spans, and design adaptability for irregular column locations, has the potential to expand the design potential of multi-storey timber buildings.

Semi-automated timber fabrication tasks demand the expertise and dexterity of human workers in addition to the use of automated robotic systems. In this paper, we introduce a human-robot collaborative system based on Augmented Reality (AR). To assess our approach, we conducted an exploratory user study on a head-mounted display (HMD) interface for task sharing between humans and an industrial robotic platform (N=16). Instead of screen-based interfaces, HMDs allowed users to receive information in-situ, regardless of their location in the workspace and the need to use their hands to handle tools or carry out tasks. We analyzed the resulting open-ended, qualitative user feedback as well as the quantitative user experience data. From the results, we derived challenges to tackle in future implementations and questions that need to be investigated to improve AR-based HRI in fabrication scenarios. The results also suggest that some aspects of human-robot interaction, like communication and trust, are more prominent when implementing a non-dyadic scenario and dealing with larger robots. The study is intended as a prequel to future work into AR-based collaboration between multiple humans and industrial robots.