Construction with Robots Part of High-rise Hotel Under Construction in Shin-Osaka

Construction robots developed by Shimizu Corporation (President: Kazuyuki Inoue) will operate at the construction site of the high-rise hotel being built in Shin-Osaka (Miyahara, Yodogawa-ku) from this fall. The robots will collaborate with human workers as they transport materials, weld steel columns, attach ceiling panels, and perform other parts of the work.

The client of the karaksa hotel Shin-Osaka premier (tentative name) high-rise hotel is SG Realty Co., Ltd., which was established by SG Holdings Co., Ltd., which core is Sagawa Express Co., Ltd. XYMAX Corporation is the hotel operator and Shimizu Corporation will handle the design and construction. The hotel will have 24 floors above ground and one floor below ground, a building area of 1,050 m², and total floor space of 18,450 m². The scheduled term of construction is from June 20, 2017 to the end of August 2019. The construction project is now around 17% complete. The foundation work is complete and work has begun on erecting the steel frame above ground.

The robots that will be operating from this fall onward include Robo-Carrier, a horizontal conveyor robot that transports materials, Robo-Welder, a welding robot for steel columns, and Robo-Buddy, a multipurpose robot that will build the ceilings in this project. Each robot is an autonomous robot and they are the core of the Shimz Smart Site, next-generation production system in which the robots proposed by Shimizu perform construction while collaborating with human worker. The robots are currently having their programming adjusted for the construction site at the Robot Laboratory in the Shimizu Institute of Technology (Koto-ku, Tokyo).

In the Shimz Smart Site, an all-weather cover covers the top of the building, The various types of robots work under the cover, and Exter, a new type of crane, lifts steel columns and other materials and brings them inside.

Installation of an all-weather cover 30 m wide by 40 m deep and 40 m high over the building at this site will begin soon. The full extent of the all-weather cover will be visible in the beginning of September when erecting steel frame at the eighth floor is complete. Exter has been in operation lifting work since April. Three Robo-Welders will work from mid-September to December and will weld three steel columns a day on the ninth through twenty-fourth floors. Two Robo-Carriers will work from late September through next February at the freight picking point on first floor and where the materials need to be transported to. The Robo-Carrier on the first floor will pick up pallets loaded with the various materials at the freight picking point and temporarily place them into the vertical-freight elevator. The pallets will then be picked up by the Robo-Carrier on the floor where the work is being performed and will be carried to the designated freight depot. Robo-Buddy will work from late December through next February and will build a part of the suspended ceiling.

Shimizu intends to expand the use of these robots to other large-scale construction sites in the Greater Tokyo Area from next year, and will continue to work on robot development to expand the types of work that robots can perform.