Robot-Oriented Design: Design and Management Tools for the Deployment of Automation and Robotics in Construction

The Cambridge Handbooks on Construction Robotics series focuses on the implementation of automation and robot technology to renew the construction industry and to arrest its declining productivity. The series is intended to give professionals, researchers, lecturers, and students basic conceptual and technical skills and implementation strategies to manage, research, or teach the implementation of advanced automation and robot-technology-based processes and technologies in construction. Currently, the implementation of modern developments in product structures (modularity and design for manufacturing), organizational strategies (just in time, just in sequence, and pulling production), and informational aspects (computer-aided design/manufacturing or computer-integrated manufacturing) are lagging because of the lack of modern integrated machine technology in construction. The Cambridge Handbooks on Construction Robotics books discuss progress in robot systems theory and demonstrate their integration using real systematic applications and projections for off-site as well as on-site building production. Robot-Oriented Design and Management introduces the design, innovation, and management methodologies that are key to the realization and implementation of the advanced concepts and technologies presented in the subsequent volumes. This book describes the efficient deployment of advanced construction and building technology. It is concerned with the coadaptation of construction products, processes, organization, and management, and with automated/robotic technology, so that the implementation of modern technology becomes easier and more efficient. It is also concerned with technology and innovation management methodologies and the generation of life cycle–oriented views related to the use of advanced technologies in construction.

Thomas Bock is a professor of building realization and robotics at Technische Universität München (TUM). His research has focussed for thirty-five years on automation and robotics in building construction, from the planning, prefabrication, on-site production and utilization phases to the reorganization and deconstruction of a building. He is a member of several boards of directors of international associations and is a member of several international academies in Europe, the Americas and Asia. He consulted several international ministries and evaluates research projects for various international funding institutions. He holds honorary doctor and professorship degrees. Professor Bock serves on several editorial boards, heads various working commissions and groups of international research organizations, and has authored or coauthored more than four hundred articles.

Thomas Linner is a postdoctoral researcher in building realization and robotics and a research associate at Technische Universität München (TUM). He completed his dissertation (Dr.-Ing.) in 2013 in the field of automation and mass customization in construction with a particular focus on automated/robotic on-site factories. Dr Linner is a specialist in the area of automated, robotic production of building 'products' as well as in the conception and performance enhancement of those products through the embedding of advanced technology (service robots, microsystems technology). Today, more and more, issues related to innovation management are becoming key topics in his research. Dr Linner is a frequently invited speaker at universities such as the University of Tokyo and Cambridge University.