Construction on the Campus West site commences

The aim of the Internet of Construction project – IoC for short – is to create a networked construction site. The project is a special collaboration between RWTH and its partners. The German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is providing 3.2 million euros of the total 5.8 million euros for the project. The funding is provided as part of the Innovations for the Production, Services, and Work of Tomorrow research program and is supervised by the Project Management Agency Karlsruhe (PTKA). The first construction activities have now started on the site that is set to become RWTH Aachen Campus West. This research area is intended to develop into a benchmark project for an innovative, sustainable quarter.

Headed by RWTH Professor Dr. Sigrid Brell-Cokcan, Chair for Individualized Production in Architecture, ten companies and research institutions are conducting research on information networks for crossvalue chain collaboration in the construction industry in the IoC. ‘We share the objective of optimizing cross-company collaboration through integral IoC systematics together with our project partners from the construction industry, automation, and mechanical engineering. In this way, we want to improve adherence to schedules and quality in the construction industry,’ says construction production expert Brell-Cokcan.

Under real conditions

The first construction activities on Campus West were carried out together with the company LEONHARD WEISS. ‘We are testing the implementation and application of the developments with the help of the real-scale IoC demonstrator,’ explains Brell-Cokcan. The demonstrator is a real section of one of her building designs. It has been designed to reflect the manufacturing requirements of the different sectors of reinforced concrete, timber construction, and steel construction. This allows the developments of the project to be tested under real conditions. Construction company LEONHARD WEISS is active in engineering and turnkey construction all over Europe and, as a general contractor, places high demands on the communication and safeguarding of construction processes. Together with experts from the field, RWTH is investigating the integration of cyber-physical systems and communication technologies in the reinforced concrete trade in order to increase digital data collection and improve construction processes.

The IoC demonstrator is being realized on the Campus West construction site and is provided by the Center for Construction Robotics in cooperation with RWTH. The ‘reference’ construction site is the first living lab for construction processes in Germany. It enables new technologies in construction to be integrated and investigated under real-life conditions, which supports their application and practical transfer.

The Chair of Individualized Production in Architecture and the Chair of Production Metrology and Quality Management of the Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering (WZL) represent RWTH in the consortium. LEONHARD WEISS GmbH & Co. KG, Annen GmbH & Co. KG, KUKA Deutschland GmbH, Lamparter GmbH & Co. KG, Liebherr-Werk Biberach GmbH, Robots in Architecture Research UG, WURST Stahlbau GmbH, and the Inter-

– Renate Kinny