Bricklaying CAD and Machine Control for Level First Courses
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for designing and constructing brick buildings lack efficiency in automating the placement of bricks, particularly in determining precise brick placement, cutting, and ensuring level courses, leading to potential errors and increased construction time.
Innovation Solution
A computer-aided design software and control software system that generates detailed brick placement data, including three-dimensional positioning and cutting instructions, for automated brick laying machines, ensuring accurate brick placement and level courses by integrating with scanning technology for surface adjustments.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If manual brick placement methods are used, then flexibility in construction is maintained, but manufacturing precision and productivity are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the brick construction process into discrete digital components: wall path definition, brick positioning calculations, cutting instructions, and placement sequencing. Each brick is individually tracked with precise 3D coordinates, allowing automated control while maintaining overall system manageability through modular data structures.
Solution Approach 2:
The software performs preliminary digital planning and calculation of all brick placements, cuts, and positions before physical construction begins. The system pre-determines the optimal sequence and positioning of each brick, eliminating on-site measurement and adjustment errors while reducing construction time.
2Productivity
If automated brick placement is implemented, then productivity is improved, but measurement precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system incorporates feedback mechanisms where the software continuously references the digital model during construction, comparing actual brick placement against planned positions. This real-time feedback ensures high precision is maintained throughout the automated construction process, allowing rapid building while correcting any deviations immediately.
Solution Approach 2:
The software creates a precise digital copy or twin of the intended brick construction, including all dimensions, positions, and elevations. This digital model serves as the reference for automated placement, ensuring measurement precision is maintained through digital rather than manual measurement processes.
3Manufacturing precision
If detailed brick by brick placement data is generated, then manufacturing precision is improved, but loss of time in data processing increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs all detailed brick-by-brick placement calculations, cutting instructions, and positioning data generation before construction begins. This preliminary digital planning phase, though time-consuming, is executed once and then used throughout construction, eliminating the need for repeated measurements and calculations during actual building.
Solution Approach 2:
The software replaces manual measurement and calculation mechanisms with automated digital computation. The system rapidly generates precise placement data through computer algorithms, substituting time-consuming manual processes with fast electronic calculations that maintain high precision without proportionally increasing time investment.
4Productivity
If computer aided design software is used, then productivity is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The software system is designed to perform multiple functions within a single integrated platform: wall path definition, brick positioning calculations, cutting instructions generation, placement sequencing, and construction monitoring. This multi-functionality consolidates what would otherwise require separate tools and processes, improving productivity while managing complexity through integration.
Data Source
AI summary
Computer aided design software for designing a building or other structure of brick construction, where in addition to the usual three dimensional modelling and rendering typical of CAD software, tabular data describing the spatial location and orientation of each brick is provided, including information regarding which bricks are cut to length so as to be shortened, and where they are located along each course, and which bricks are machined, drilled or routed for services or other special fittings. Data pertaining to this is compiled in a database for access by control software to control a brick laying machine to build a building or other structure from bricks. The database may receive via interface with a scanner data being a measure of the elevation of the footings and/or concrete pad that has been constructed according to the building plan and for each brick of the first course, to determine how much material must be machined off the bottom of each brick so that when the first course is laid, the tops of the bricks of the first course are at the same level. This machining data is stored for each brick with the tabular data produced by computer aided design software, so that the control software can control the brick laying machine to machine and cut each brick as per the stored data, and convey each brick to the stored position on the footing, pad or previously laid course of bricks, with application of adhesive prior to positioning of the brick.