Autonomous robot for pavement construction in challenging environments

Conventional concrete paving construction machinery has insufficient automation in design, standardized process, and controls for paving construction in hazardous environments on earth as well as other planets. Although the state-of-the-art paving process includes a high level of automation, the process is still labor intensive which hinders its use due to operation cost and safety in hazardous environments. Researchers at Ohio University are developing an autonomous robot to perform the rebar placement, vibration, screed, and curing tasks associated with a concrete paving process. These single tasks can be automated and integrated into a novel single paving robot called RoboPaver. This single robot is capable of operating in challenging environments on Earth and on other planetary bodies such as the Moon and Mars with minimal assistance. This paper presents the mechanical and controller design of a fully autonomous robot that will be used for concrete pavement construction. It is envisioned that with the aid of an autonomous paving robot, pavement construction can be safely conducted in hazardous environments, for which conventional paving equipment and operations are not suited. Copyrights ASCE 2006.