Journal
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON AUTOMATION SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
Volume 20, Issue 3, Pages 1515-1526Publisher
IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC
DOI: 10.1109/TASE.2023.3236805
Keywords
Planning; Robots; Prefabricated construction; Task analysis; Real-time systems; Safety; Decision making; assembly planning; deep reinforcement learning (DRL); automated construction; building information modelling (BIM)
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This paper proposes a Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) based method for automated assembly planning in robot-based prefabricated construction. A re-configurable simulator is developed based on a Building Information Model (BIM) and an open game engine, which supports training and testing of various optimization methods. The assembly planning problem is modeled as a Markov Decision Process (MDP) and a set of DRL algorithms are developed and trained using the simulator. Experimental case studies validate the performance of the proposed methods and provide benchmarks for future research in automated construction.
The adoption of robotics is promising to improve the efficiency, quality, and safety of prefabricated construction. Besides technologies that improve the capability of a single robot, the automated assembly planning for robots at construction sites is vital for further improving the efficiency and promoting robots into practices. However, considering the highly dynamic and uncertain nature of a construction environment, and the varied scenarios in different construction sites, it is always challenging to make appropriate and up-to-date assembly plans. Therefore, this paper proposes a Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) based method for automated assembly planning in robot-based prefabricated construction. Specifically, a re-configurable simulator for assembly planning is developed based on a Building Information Model (BIM) and an open game engine, which could support the training and testing of various optimization methods. Furthermore, the assembly planning problem is modelled as a Markov Decision Process (MDP) and a set of DRL algorithms are developed and trained using the simulator. Finally, experimental case studies in four typical scenarios are conducted, and the performance of our proposed methods have been verified, which can also serve as benchmarks for future research works within the community of automated construction. Note to Practitioners-This paper is conducted based on the comprehensive analysis of real-life assembly planning processes in prefabricated construction, and the methods proposed could bring many benefits to practitioners. Firstly, the proposed simulator could be easily re-configured to simulate diverse scenarios, which can be used to evaluate and verify the operations' optimization methods and new construction technologies. Secondly, the proposed DRL-based optimization methods can be directly adopted in various robot-based construction scenarios, and can also be tailored to support the assembly planning in traditional human-based or human-robot construction environments. Thirdly, the proposed DRL methods and their performance in the four typical scenarios can serve as benchmarks for proposing new advanced construction technologies and optimization methods in assembly planning.
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