Overview of 3D construction printing and future perspectives: a review of technology, companies and research progression

Volpe, Stelladriana; Sangiorgio, Valentino; Fiorito, Francesco; Varum, H.

doi:10.1080/00038628.2022.2154740

Cited by 12 publications

(13 citation statements)

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“…In the last decade, the unprecedented development and diffusion of novel systems in the building sector have included the advent of 3D printing and additive manufacturing technologies (Hossain et al , 2020). Several companies have developed 3D construction printing systems and are investing in applied research, while the positive trend towards original research articles and reviews shows the considerable interest and potential of this revolutionary construction process (Volpe et al , 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The focus of additive manufacturing and prototyping in the construction field is on cement and concrete because of their broader use and lower costs (Buswell et al , 2018; Kazemian et al , 2017). Even if extrusion-based 3D concrete printing is the most frequently used method in the buildingsector (Volpe et al , 2022; Souza et al , 2020), there are still no “better” or “more widely used” systems to make printing machinery. The printing extruder is typically positioned on a gantry or robotic arm according to the required precision and building dimensions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A new concept for large additive manufacturing in construction: tower crane-based 3D printing controlled by deep reinforcement learning

Parisi

Sangiorgio

Parisi

et al. 2023

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Purpose Most of the 3D printing machines do not comply with the requirements of on-site, large-scale multi-story building construction. This paper aims to propose the conceptualization of a tower crane (TC)-based 3D printing controlled by artificial intelligence (AI) as the first step towards a large 3D printing development for multi-story buildings. It also aims to overcome the most important limitation of additive manufacturing in the construction industry (the build volume) by exploiting the most important machine used in the field: TCs. It assesses the technology feasibility by investigating the accuracy reached in the printing process. Design/methodology/approach The research is composed of three main steps: firstly, the TC-based 3D printing concept is defined by proposing an aero-pendulum extruder stabilized by propellers to control the trajectory during the extrusion process; secondly, an AI-based system is defined to control both the crane and the extruder toolpath by exploiting deep reinforcement learning (DRL) control approach; thirdly the proposed framework is validated by simulating the dynamical system and analysing its performance. Findings The TC-based 3D printer can be effectively used for additive manufacturing in the construction industry. Both the TC and its extruder can be properly controlled by an AI-based control system. The paper shows the effectiveness of the aero-pendulum extruder controlled by AI demonstrated by simulations and validation. The AI-based control system allows for reaching an acceptable tolerance with respect to the ideal trajectory compared with the system tolerance without stabilization. Originality/value In related literature, scientific investigations concerning the use of crane systems for 3D printing and AI-based systems for control are completely missing. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the proposed research demonstrates for the first time the effectiveness of this technology conceptualized and controlled with an intelligent DRL agent. Practical implications The results provide the first step towards the development of a new additive manufacturing system for multi-storey constructions exploiting the TC-based 3D printing. The demonstration of the conceptualization feasibility and the control system opens up new possibilities to activate experimental research for companies and research centres.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A new concept for large additive manufacturing in construction: tower crane-based 3D printing controlled by deep reinforcement learning

Parisi

Sangiorgio

Parisi

et al. 2023

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“…The most widely used 3D printing systems cannot construct higher than two stories and have to be raised to build the second story. In addition, as increasing the size of the printer involves higher costs and complex transport problems, the 3D components are printed off-site (prefabricated 3D printing) [105,295]. Therefore, the present study proposes the new TC 3D printing concept, a building system as the first step towards achieving a multi-story construction process based on additive manufacturing, to reduce time, costs and resources.…”

Section: Tower-crane Based 3d Printing Controlled By Aimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A new concept for large additive manufacturing in construction: Tower crane-based 3D printing controlled by deep reinforcement learning process [295].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The focus of additive manufacturing and prototyping in the construction field is on cement and concrete because of their broader use and lower costs [99,100]. Even if extrusionbased 3D concrete printing is the most frequently used method in the building sector [295,296], there are still no "better" or "more widely used" systems to make printing machinery. The printing extruder is typically positioned on a gantry or robotic arm according to the required precision and building dimensions.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Automation and Information Approaches to Support Maintenance and Production Management in the Construction Industry

Parisi¹

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The construction industry is a wide industrial sector ranging from the design and management of major infrastructures, such as bridges, to civil dwelling construction. It is worldwide acknowledged as a fundamental driving sector for the Gross Domestic Product, but it is also among the less performing and delayed ones in the adoption and exploitation of technological improvements. These limitations are inducing stakeholders to borrow and integrate many enhancements from other industrial fields into the sector. This digitalization trend is spreading through the entire life cycle of the construction process and identifying a challenging approach because of the paradigm shift needed from physical to cyber-physical systems. The Industry 4.0 concept boosted this trend so that both in the academy and in the construction industry it has been specified as Construction 4.0. It borrows from the Industry 4.0 the adoption of many key enabling technologies such as Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence and Additive Manufacturing. This thesis investigates specifically this technological integration, focusing on the application of such enabling technologies in the construction field and considering different stages in the life cycle in varying infrastructure typologies. Starting from a literature investigation on "holistic" intelligent systems in Intelligent Buildings construction, in a Digital Twin fashion, the influence and the application of enabling technologies and related operative ICT tools such as Internet of Things and Big Data are studied, from a perspective of the whole constructions' life cycle. The maintenance phase of major infrastructures is studied concerning structural safety and fault detection, by developing a method to detect damages in railway steel truss bridges via artificial intelligence. An innovative additive manufacturing technology for high-rise constructions is then presented. It consists of an improvement with a custom extruder of standard tower crane technology, while the whole system is driven by an artificial intelligence agent.We conclude that Construction 4.0 is still at its embryonic stage. More advanced results are obtainable for the operation and maintenance management of existing ix es presenta una innovadora tecnologia de fabricació additiva per a construccions de gran altura. Consisteix en una millora de la tecnologia de les grues torre estàndard amb una extrusora personalitzada, mentre que tot el sistema està controlat per un agent d'intel•ligència artificial.Concloem que la Construcció 4.0 encara es troba en la seua etapa embrionària. Es poden obtindre resultats més avançats en la implantació tecnològica sobre infraestructures existents per a la seua gestió d'operació i manteniment degut a l'enfocament relacionat principalment amb la sensorització i anàlisi de dades. La innovació en la fase integrada de disseny/construcció continua sent més desafiadora, a causa de la necessitat d'un paradigma completament nou i innovacions industrials en molts camps diferents.

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Regeneration diagnosis for the service lifespans of residential buildings on a circular economy perspective

Teng,

Li,

et al. 2024

Energy and Buildings

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Overview of 3D construction printing and future perspectives: a review of technology, companies and research progression

Cited by 12 publications

References 84 publications

A new concept for large additive manufacturing in construction: tower crane-based 3D printing controlled by deep reinforcement learning

A new concept for large additive manufacturing in construction: tower crane-based 3D printing controlled by deep reinforcement learning

Automation and Information Approaches to Support Maintenance and Production Management in the Construction Industry

Regeneration diagnosis for the service lifespans of residential buildings on a circular economy perspective

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