Current surveying methods for the integration of additive manufacturing in the construction process

Abstract

The Technical University of Braunschweig (Brunswick) and Technical University of Munich were successful to establish a Collaborative Research Centre called “Additive Manufacturing in Construction (AMC)- The Challenge of Large Scale” starting from 2020 and funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The aim of this project is “to create the basic conditions for the introduction of additive manufacturing in construction, and thus to pave the way for the use of resource-efficient constructions with a high level of design freedom”. Surveying engineering (geodetic surveying, photogrammetry, laser scanning and GNSS) plays a major role in one of the sub-projects called “Integration of Additive Manufacturing in the Construction Process”. This paper aims at introducing the large scale AMC with the main focus on investigating the role of surveying engineering in this topic which will be a topic of high interest in the coming years in the digital fabrication within construction field. After a short introduction on additive manufacturing in construction, this paper will present the general aims and structure of the Collaborative Research Centre. Thereupon, the importance of geometric quality inspection and establishing and transferring different coordinate systems during the Additive Manufacturing (AM) construction steps (elements fabrication, installation and whole structure/building control) and the role of geodetic surveying, photogrammetry, laser scanning and GNSS will be outlined. This will be presented within a subproject called “C06: Integration of Additive Manufacturing in the Construction Process” and potentials and challenges for integrating surveying engineering in component and building level additive manufacturing in construction are mentioned.