Rongbo Hu

Technische Universität München | TUM · School of Engineering and Design

This research has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 873077 (MAIA-H2020-MSCA-RISE 2019). MAIA on CORDIS: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/873077 Working populations in European Member States are ageing. In short, if most people continue to retire at around 60 years of age, the European labour force will shrink by around three million per year over the period 2020 to 2035 as reported by EU-OSHA. There is a need for a new and more comprehensive policy design to counter the shortage of workers in the future. Moreover, in European production systems there is a growing demand of applications with arm-based robots, exoskeletons, smart and intelligent working tools, immersive virtual reality technology. All these last generation technologies if well applied have a big potential to preserve the productivity, quality and safety of the aging workforce by better powering their great level experience and extraordinary skills. The main objective of the MAIA Academy is to create a unique research and innovation staff exchange network focused on the ageing problem in manufacturing. MAIA project will provide a multidisciplinary approach to achieve objectives as: 1. the study of the aging workforce needs and requirements in European production and assembly systems; 2. the development of new design methodology to create assembly and production workspaces elderly-oriented by preserving productivity, quality and safety; 3. the development of new analytical models to support assembly and production line design elderly-oriented and validate them with world-wide case studies; 4. design and test of new ergonomics devices in order to support aging workers during tasks, by helping them in reducing muscular fatigue and risk of muscle skeletal disorders; 5. design and test of new immersive and virtual reality instruments in order to guide elder workers and support them in the production process. MAIA brings together 7 European partners and 6 Third Country partners to create a new generation of knowledge towards the creation of age-friendly paradigms, models and methods for manufacturing systems. European Partners: 1) UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI PADOVA (Italy) – Coordinator 2) TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET MUENCHEN (Germany) 3) TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAT DARMSTADT (Germany) 4) INSTITUT SUPERIEUR DE L'AERONAUTIQUE ET DE L'ESPACE (France) 5) HOCHSCHULE FUR WIRTSCHAFT UND RECHT BERLIN (Germany) 6) UNIVERZA V LJUBLJANI (Slovenia) 7) GROUPE KEDGE BUSINESS SCHOOL (France) Third country partners: 1) THE UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND (New Zealand) 2) RESEARCH FOUNDATION OF THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK (United States) 3) UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA BOARD OF TRUSTEES (United States) 4) KEIO UNIVERSITY (Japan) 5) THE CHINESE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG (China, People's Republic of) 6) RYERSON UNIVERSITY (Canada)

CIB Working Commission W119 on Customized Industrial Construction has been established as the successor of former TG57 on Industrialization in Construction and as a joint CIB-IAARC Commission. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Thomas Bock, Technical University of Munich, Germany is the appointed Coordinator of this Working Commission. W119 embraces a variety of focused task groups that work on the intersection of architecture and construction-related topics with advanced technologies such as ICRT, sensory, automation, robotics and medical technologies. These technologies provide solutions to future social, economic and environmental challenges. Whereas the yearly workshops of W119 in previous years had a broader scope (e.g. focus on settlements, etc.) regarding the application of automation, robotics technology, and advanced prefabrication solutions in the context of built environment, the 2019 workshop focussed on Automation and Robotics in Construction. Robotic solutions along the construction value chain and the major phases of the actual construction process (component production, logistics, prefabrication, on-site construction, maintenance, etc.) are gaining on a worldwide level more momentum. W119, therefore, saw a need to reflect this with the topic of this year’s workshop. The contributions to this year’s workshop cover key aspects of future automated and robotic construction such as logistics (Smart lift control and monitoring for super high-rise building construction project), building exterior finishing (Developing a roadmap for implementing on-site construction automation and robotics in Hong Kong), the analysis of work procedures (A non-intrusive method for measuring construction workers’ muscle) as well as tools for strategic foresight and requirements engineering (System boundaries of implementing construction robots for buildings). As of late, the development of “hard” physical-mechanical robots and automation systems for the execution of construction tasks are gaining increasing interest. This manifests itself in an increase in academic research activity, joint industry-academia collaboration projects, the emergence of start-ups and a strong and growing interest of large, established organisations. W119 and the contributors to this workshop are dedicated to support further market uptake of such solutions with their research and development activities. The workshop was held as part of the official program of the CIB 2019 World Building Congress in Hong Kong, with kind support of: Mi Pan (Dr.), Wei Pan (Prof. Dr.); The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Wen Pan (PHD candidate); Technical University of Munich, Germany Soonwook Kwon (Prof. Dr.); Sungkyunkwan University, Korea Yantao Yu (PHD candidate), Heng Li (Prof. Dr.); The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong Organisers and editors of the proccedings: Thomas Linner (Dr.-Ing.), Thomas Bock (Prof. Dr.-Ing.) Chair of Building Realisation and Robotics, Technical University of Munich