Expansion of the Earth Construction Lab (ECL)

Project summary

In the future, the ECL will facilitate practical testing, under industrial operating conditions, of robotic rammed earth manufacturing technologies previously developed and validated in laboratory settings. The expansion of the facility to incorporate digitally controlled material processing and material feeding systems will enable the systematic research and development of the digital process chain required for the implementation of these technologies.

While the robotic manufacturing processes for assembling components are automated with high quality and repeatability, the preceding processes of material conditioning, mixing and conveying are still carried out manually, with the associated process uncertainties.

The infrastructure expansion specifically includes the following to replace the described process inconsistencies with a digitally controlled workflow:

• the mechanical processing and mixing of local clay material,
• the transport of material from the mixing station to the robotic end effector,
• the overarching digital process control of material mixing and feeding, and
• the digital integration of the process steps into a holistic digital workflow