Embracing failures: empowering user interventions in robotic prefabrication with augmented reality

Abstract

Abstract This paper presents a method for multi-human–robot collaborative timber construction using a head-mounted augmented reality system as the main facilitator. The AR system enables workers to visualise the construction tasks and intervene in otherwise automated robotic processes through task and motion control functions on the AR headset. To validate the method, we invited ten carpenters to participate in a dual-human–robot wall assembly case study. Each pair of workers worked together with a heavy-payload industrial robot, during which pre-planned errors were triggered, prompting them to utilise the AR interface to resolve these errors. The multi-user setup emulated construction environments that involve multiple humans, and the system incorporated real-time and asymmetrical visualisations of the tasks, robot and human partners to support multi-actor collaboration. The study demonstrates the potential of AR in connecting and empowering human workers in semi-automated prefabrication and construction processes. It presents new strategies to supervise, control and adjust otherwise stringent constraints of automated fabrication workflows, enabling experienced workers direct control over robotic motion and multi-actor prefabrication.