Funding: German Research Association (DFG)
Duration: 2022 to 2025
While a cyber-physical construction platform (CPCP) consisting of a tower crane with an image-based sensor network, a spider crane and novel gripper systems was developed from a technical perspective in the first phase of the project (2019-2022), the second phase of the project aims to perform trustworthy geo-referenced assembly in absolute coordinates as an automated process. The interdisciplinary research within the project focuses on the generation of the necessary interaction information, real-time environmental data and the use of this data in motion planning for pick-up, transport and assembly tasks of the crane control. The intended automated assembly subprocesses will be shaped by distributed, discontinuous, and potentially fragmented interactions between various objects and human operators. This type of increased 'interobjectivity' between objects such as the tower crane, the spider crane, the mobile manufacturing platform and the mobile robots within the CPCP raises questions of controllability and trustworthiness of the CPCP as well as the relationship between automation and accountability. In our social science research, we will examine the requirements of trust(worthiness) from the perspective of the human machine operators as well as the contracting organizations. Starting with three relevant levels of trust building (human-machine-interaction, organization, sociotechnical systems) we analyse their relative importance and requirements of integration and skills development. Thereby, we aim to contribute to a socially sustainable and future-proof building culture.
The research is conducted by the following institutes of the University of Stuttgart: Institute for System Dynamics (ISYS) (PI: Prof. Dr. Oliver Sawodny), Institute for Photogrammetry (IfP) (PI: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Uwe Sörgel) and Institute for Social Sciences (SOWI) (PI: Prof. Dr. Cordula Kropp).
Participating researchers from the social sciences:
- Prof. Dr. Cordula Kropp (PI)
- Amelie Schreck (Contact)