Exoskeleton and Humanoid Robotic Technology in Construction and Built Environment

The human being is the only living organism which steadily uses “tools”. We have used tools to cultivate our land, grow our food, build up cities and communication infrastructures – tools are the basis for phenomena as culture and globalization. Some even argue that tools (and especially the wealth they are able to create for a huge amount of people) are the basis for today’s global spread of freedom and democracy [1]. Especially tools which enhance our power in the field of mobility have played an important role in human history. The bicycle, an archetype of the assistance in physical ability and mobility, is based on the combination of human power and an artificial, technical system and was introduced by C. Drais in 1817. Later on, the car pressed ahead with this approach and supplemented human force by motor technology, a kind of actuator. Ergonomics and the research on efficient man-machine cooperation developed during First and Second World War in order to maximize the efficiency of man controlled artifacts as motor cycles, cars, airplanes, ships and other war equipment. After the Second World War, systematic science in improving man-machine systems led to airplanes and cars which more and more reduced the physical and cognitive workload of the human users. Today’s cars take over driving maneuvers in critical situations and electric cars equipped with sensor-actuator systems provide a multitude of possibilities to assist the driver and driving efficiency. Within the scope of research on the next generation fighter jet control an autopilot is used which is able to set its degree of autonomy in real-time based on the measured cognitive workload of the pilot [2]. An even closer relation between man and machine is represented by so called mobile suits envisaged by Japanese technology visionaries (e.g. in Japanese Mangas) since the 60 ’s. In 1963, the Rancho Arm was developed by Rancho Los Amigos Hospital (California) as an artificial limb for handicapped and later on integrated with computer technology by Stanford University. Experiments with whole mobile suits and power assistance devices were conducted by Japanese robotic scientists since the 70 ’s. Today’s version of HAL (Hybrid Assistive Limb) is controlled by bio-electric signals thus blurring the borders between man and machine. Further, modern power suits allow a stepwise regulation of the suits’ assistive power according to user’s individual needs. Finally, Toyota calls its next generation of downsized, personal, and electrical mobility devices like iReal and iSwing explicitly “Mobility Robots” and closely cooperates with top robotic researches to make them as intuitively operated as possible.