Automated Wall Panel Planning for Robotic Off-Site Fabrication
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Solution Overview
Problem
The current panelization process in off-site construction is manual, time-consuming, prone to errors, and requires extensive expertise, limiting the automation of wall panel design and fabrication.
Innovation Solution
An intelligent construction structure planner that automatically designs panels from architectural plans, considering building codes and robotic fabrication capabilities, and outputs commands for robotic builders to fabricate panels without human intervention.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If manual panelization is performed by experienced designers, then design accuracy and building code compliance are improved, but time consumption and labor intensity increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the manual mechanical process of panel design with an automated computer-based system. The intelligent software automatically generates panelization designs from architectural models, eliminating the need for manual designer intervention while maintaining compliance with building codes and fabrication constraints.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables self-service panelization by allowing the software to autonomously perform the entire panel design process without requiring experienced designers. The intelligent algorithm independently handles wall analysis, panel segmentation, and generation of fabrication-ready designs.
2Loss of information
If detailed digital clone of building is created manually using BIM software, then design visualization and analysis are improved, but labor intensity and expertise requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by automatically generating the detailed digital clone of the building from basic architectural inputs. The software pre-processes wall locations, dimensions, and configurations before panelization begins, eliminating the need for manual BIM modeling.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates a digital replica (copy) of the building's wall structure automatically from architectural plans. This digital clone is generated through algorithmic processing rather than manual BIM creation, preserving all necessary geometric and spatial information while reducing operational complexity.
3Ease of operation
If existing panelization software is used, then design visualization is improved, but automation capability remains limited requiring extensive manual intervention
Solution Approach 1:
The system transitions from static visualization to dynamic automation. The intelligent software not only visualizes panel designs but actively generates optimized panelization schemes, adjusts configurations automatically, and produces fabrication-ready outputs without manual intervention throughout the design process.
Solution Approach 2:
The system combines multiple functions into a single automated platform: architectural model processing, wall analysis, panel segmentation, design optimization, code compliance checking, and fabrication documentation generation. This multi-functional approach eliminates the need for separate manual operations for each design stage.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for automatic panel design and fabrication includes receiving a two-dimensional or three-dimensional architectural plan for a building, converting the architectural plan into a first data file that contains information about a location, length, and style of each wall included in the architectural plan, obtaining, from the first data file, a list of walls to automatically generate a second data file that contains a list of panels to be constructed for each of the list of walls, and generating a set of commands for each of panels in the list and transmitting the set of commands to a robotic builder, to allow the robotic builder to automatically build each of the panels in the list.