Robotic technology can strengthen automatic quality control of building elements

A large part of quality control of prefabricated building elements is currently carried out manually, but many of the tasks have the potential to be automated, the results of an innovation collaboration show.

When a new building shoots up in the cityscape, it goes up fast due to a long series of more-or-less hidden processes on various factory floors. Many buildings are built from prefabricated building elements.

As the name suggests, major preparatory work is required to create many customised construction elements in factories in parallel with building site preparation, before the building itself takes shape. The elements are delivered prefabricated to the construction site and therefore simply need to be assembled.

In order for these pre-constructed elements to fit together smoothly on site, thorough quality control collecting precise measurement data must be carried out on the prefabricated elements. This is very important, as the building blocks must fit together precisely in order for the building to be built successfully and avoid time and cost overruns.

– Today, companies make precise measurements at various stages during production. This is typically done manually and is a time-consuming process. It is also an important process, because if you make a mistake in connection with the construction of the elements, the mistakes can be difficult to correct later. Which means that, in the end, you may have to scrap some elements, says Senior Specialist at the Danish Technological Institute (DTI), Thomas Giselsson.

Quality control of 12-meter-long elements

To prevent this wasting of effort and materials, DTI - together with a number of partners in the construction industry - has participated in a WE BUILD DENMARK innovation collaboration.

The project investigated methods that can create a higher degree of automation in the quality control of prefabricated elements in concrete and wood.

One of the partners in the project is Taasinge Elementer, which prefabricates wooden elements for the Danish construction industry. At their factory just outside Bregninge in Tåsinge, prefabricated elements up to 12 meters long and four meters high are produced on a daily basis.

Alexander Laning, who is Head of Business Optimization at Taasinge Elementer, describes it as completely necessary for the company to search the market for robot solutions that can automate a number of work tasks.

– There is an increasing demand for sustainable construction, which involves a large amount of wood. But we can see that the available labour force is going to fall over the next few years. So we will have to do more with fewer hands, and therefore we have to automate, he says.

The WE BUILD DENMARK project has helped Taasinge Elementer to continue with precisely this – increased automation. The innovation collaboration investigated whether a camera with associated software can precisely calculate an element's actual measurements. These numbers can then be compared with the measurements given in the CAD drawings for the individual building element.

– Specifically, we have used a standard industrial camera with a lens that can see an area of ​​approximately 4x6 meters at a height of five metres. The measurements from the camera enable us to compare the real dimensions of the specific elements with the dimensions given in the CAD drawing for the individual building element, says Thomas Giselsson.

– There will be several advantages to implementing technology like this. There is the option to digitize the process more and increase traceability and the opportunity to remove some of the many manual tasks that exist today, and to ensure a higher quality at the same time, he adds.

Robot technology creates value on the factory floor

Taasinge Elementer installed their first robot in 2023 and since then they have been considering what their next automation step should be. And participation in the innovation collaboration has been helpful.

– The project we have run with WE BUILD DENMARK and DTI has clearly provided good value. If we had to find these methods ourselves, I would have spent oceans of time and I would not have known in which direction to start looking. Having a partner who knows more means that this was a very good and fast process for us to be involved in, says Alexander Laning.

In addition to Taasinge Elementer, DTI and WE BUILD DENMARK; Fårup Betonindustri, Enemærke & Petersen and Thisted-Fjerritslev Cementvarefabrik participated in the WE BUILD DENMARK innovation collaboration. The innovation collaboration is supported by the Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science.