rick@cs.arizona.edu (Rick Schlichting) (01/23/91)
[Dr. David Kahaner is a numerical analyst visiting Japan for two-years under the auspices of the Office of Naval Research-Asia (ONR/Asia). The following is the professional opinion of David Kahaner and in no way has the blessing of the US Government or any agency of it. All information is dated and of limited life time. This disclaimer should be noted on ANY attribution.] [Copies of previous reports written by Kahaner can be obtained from host cs.arizona.edu using anonymous FTP.] To: Distribution From: David K. Kahaner ONR Asia [kahaner@xroads.cc.u-tokyo.ac.jp] Re: Japan Ministry of Construction's research vision for the 21st century. 22 Jan 1991 Japan has committed itself in writing to spend 430 trillion yen on public investment (airports, houses, roads, etc.) in the next ten years. At 130 yen per dollar that is about $3.3 Trillion US; it does not include construction investment by the private sector. The Japanese construction industry is the country's largest (see my report, "ohbayashi", 24 May 1990), but is faced with an aging population, and both a high accident rate and low R&D expenditures, about 2%, relative to other industries (although this figure is much higher than in the U.S.). The Ministry of Construction has developed a research program to make the industry more efficient, safer, and utilize less labor. The program envisions technology in the early 21st century, about 15-20 years from now. It focuses not only on traditional construction but on new fields such as ocean and underground construction. While there are many aspects of this program it is quite clear that automation and robotics play a key role. An extensive description is given in "Techno Japan", July 1990, Vol 23 No 7, pp8-37. The authors explain that because construction projects are strongly oriented towards "one off", robotics applications lag far behind those in manufacturing which has a more repetitive emphasis. Hence plans for automation are conservative and the majority of plans are for "semi- automation". Major structures that are considered by the Ministry's plan are Mountain Tunnel (unshielded) Shielded Tunnel Dam Pavement Building Major categories of work considered are Earthwork Foundation Concrete Underwater Installation For each of the above, detailed subcategories are given and rather complete descriptions are provided of the tasks that semi-automation, and ultimately automation should accomplish, including drawings showing how various automated devices must be integrated together. The following quote illustrates this very well. "By use of a composite construction method, work will no longer be divided into steelwork, reinforcement work, framing work or concrete work; various parts for a frame are precast and prefabricated (PC) at an on-site automated plant, and transferred and assembled by means of an automatic crane and various coupling robots, thereby reducing field work to about one-third of the current level. PC parts will be automatically manufactured by a CAD/CAM system on site in order to improve the automation ratio. In other words, composite PC parts will be manufactured, based on CAD- manufactured parts information, by various assembly robots such as reinforcement processing robots and frame-assembly robots for a PC manufacturing system. Also, when precast parts are used for the exterior walls, their surfaces will be automatically polished and treated with high-durability materials. PC parts will be assembled by a part-assembly robot and a welding robot as large-size floor panel units, already processed for electric wiring and piping, which are composed of floor PC plates suitable for construction of pillars and beams. These large-size units will be transferred to predetermined positions by an automatic crane and assembled by an interlocking assembly system comprising a parts-positioning system and and automatic welding robot. The early installation of the floor plates for PC parts will facilitate movements by assembly robots and transporting robots." This is a fascinating survey, well worth reading even for people not in the field. --------------END OF MEMO------------------------------------------------