Daniel Castro-Lacouture

A framework for developing a unified B2B e-trading construction marketplace

With its great explosion and the advancement of related technology and services, such as the World Wide Web (WWW), the Internet has provided a rich environment for developing Internet-based electronic commerce (e-commerce) applications in construction. Among the different types of e-commerce, business-to-business (B2B) is the most widely used. The B2B e-trading marketplaces (also called B2B-exchanges), which have sparked a revolution in the way of trading products between buyers and suppliers, are an essential component of B2B applications. However, many e-trading marketplaces have been developed and hosted by different construction products and services providers, and each forms a closed system with their own customers and clients. In this paper, the concept of e-union is presented, which integrates the services provided by different e-trading construction sites to provide an open e-trading service. The design of a mobile agent-enabled framework for building such an open e-trading marketplace environment is described, along with a prototypical implementation.

Applicability of e-Work models for the automation of construction materials management systems

Manual processes of quantity take-off, bidding and quantity revision of construction materials are the cause of numerous conflicts among construction process stakeholders. This research aims at redesigning these processes in the direction of a collaborative approach using e-Commerce technology. Relevant B2B approaches need to incorporate tools that minimize estimation errors and improve design quality. Recent research on e-Work models allows the proposition of a set of applications in construction materials management systems for the exchange of design and project information among contractors, designers, fabricators and suppliers. Expected benefits include improvements conflict resolution techniques, faster procurement and reduction of lead times. This paper discusses the applicability of e-Work in the automation of construction materials management systems, using knowledge of past estimations in addition to recent observations of other projects in progress or completed.

FULLY AUTONOMOUS ROBOT FOR PAVING OPERATIONS

Efficiency is low in conventional concrete construction. This fact, combined with high accident rates at construction sites, low product quality, and insufficient controls of the project schedules have led researchers to develop autonomous robots to perform specific tasks. Such robots are highly advantageous for a multi-task operation such as concrete paving. Concrete pavement construction is ideally suited for robotics in that the complete construction process is made up of many single-tasks that can be automated and integrated into a single machine. Although the state-of-the-art paving process includes a high level of automation, the process is still labor intensive and the final quality of the pavement section is a function of the skill of the paving crew. Introducing autonomous robotics into paving operations provides a means to consistently produce high-quality products, faster and safer than conventional concrete paving techniques. Ohio University is developing a 1:20 scale prototype of a fully autonomous robot for concrete paving called RoboPaver. The purpose of the prototype is to serve as a proof-of-concept concrete pavement construction robot. The full-scale version of the RoboPaver will occupy about the same volume as a typical commercially-available slipform paver, but will combine all the operations of a conventional paving system into one robot. The RoboPaver prototype will also implement an intelligent concrete construction system that will allow real-time remote monitoring and control of the paving operations, based on sensors and other machine performance data. The tangible benefits of using RoboPaver for pavement construction will include lower labor costs, lower equipment maintenance costs, less construction downtime, and lower demobilization and cleanup costs. Other potential RoboPaver benefits include increased construction site safety and higher quality of the finished pavement section, both of which can be directly related to a reduction of overall project costs.

Cable-Suspended Robotic Contour Crafting System

This paper introduces a new concept for a contour crafting construction system. Contour crafting is a relatively new layered fabrication technology that enables automated construction of whole structures. The system proposed here consists of a mobile contour crafting platform driven by a translational cable-suspended robot. The platform includes an extrusion system for laying beads of concrete as well as computer-controlled trowels for forming the beads as they are laid. This system is fully automated and can be used to construct concrete structures rapidly and economically. The novel attributes of this system enable significant improvements over other proposed contour crafting systems, including easier portability, lower cost, and the potential to build much larger structures. This paper presents the kinematics and statics of the proposed system, and uses the reachable workspace of the robot as well as the corresponding cable tensions to approximate the maximum size structure that can be built using this manipulator.Copyright

Optimizing B2B transactions using the marketplace competitive analyzer

Abstract In a business-to-business (B2B) environment, most if not every large company interacts with suppliers, customers, and competitors on one or more Net markets, connecting to both ends of the supply chain, the supplier side and the customer side. To support purchasing agents, analysts, and managers in evaluating their purchasing decisions, a new analytical tool is presented, the Marketplace Competitive Analyzer (MCA). The MCA is a component of a total supply chain solution. It is supportive of the supplier relationship management (SRM) concept and extends its functionality into electronic marketplaces. In this way, the MCA solution expands the SRM concept into the B2B world of online exchanges. MCA is also of value in the selling end of the supply chain, though this paper mainly focuses on the buying end of the supply chain. MCA analyzes the past transactions for a given commodity in a Net market using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), a non-parametric efficiency analysis technique based on linear optimization. DEA and MCA are used to analyze the efficiency of each buy position in the Net market. This helps the decision maker discover possible tradeoffs while considering the terms of the purchase, such as price, lead time, quality and quantity. MCA can be used to design optimal spot buy bids in the supplier end of the chain, so that the procurement activities are better supported. As a result, MCA helps the analyst to design an efficient and advantageous spot buy offer.

Autonomous Robot for Pavement Construction in Challenging Environments

Conventional concrete paving construction machinery has insufficient automation in design, standardized process, and controls for paving construction in hazardous environments on earth as well as other planets. Although the state-of-theart paving process includes a high level of automation, the process is still labor intensive which hinders its use due to operation cost and safety in hazardous environments. Researchers at Ohio University are developing an autonomous robot to perform the rebar placement, vibration, screed, and curing tasks associated with a concrete paving process. These single tasks can be automated and integrated into a novel single paving robot called RoboPaver. This single robot is capable of operating in challenging environments on Earth and on other planetary bodies such as the Moon and Mars with minimal assistance. This paper presents the mechanical and controller design of a fully autonomous robot that will be used for concrete pavement construction. It is envisioned that with the aid of an autonomous paving robot, pavement construction can be safely conducted in hazardous environments, for which conventional paving equipment and operations are not suited.