A Step Towards Automated Tool Tracking on Construction Sites: Boston Dynamics SPOT and RFID

9 pages•Published: May 15, 2022

Eric M. Wetzel, Muhammad Umer, Will Richardson and Justin Patton

Abstract

Tool tracking and inventory management on a construction project is often more reactive than proactive. It is not that tools are not of value, but to larger firms, a certain comfort level exists with a loss to a relatively small line item, especially when compared to the resources that may be expended to track the tool inventory. With current market construction robotics serving a number of uses, testing multiple applications of autonomous robots creates more return for end-users. This research aims to execute a proof of concept for automated tool tracking using an autonomous robot and RFID technology. The research was carried out with three types of scans namely: Human held RFID reader; Robot mounted RFID reader in manual mode; Robot mounted RFID reader in autonomous mode. A total of 39 tools were tagged using passive UHF RFID tags and the study looked at the average cycle count time it took time to read 39 tags for the three scan types and the reliability of the robot and RFID technology. Results show reliability of the autonomous robot in acquiring RFID information, including zero failures in tag identification and autonomous guidance.

Keyphrases: automation, autonomous tool tracking, construction robotics, rfid tags

In: Tom Leathem, Wes Collins and Anthony Perrenoud (editors). ASC2022. 58th Annual Associated Schools of Construction International Conference, vol 3, pages 488-496.

Links:	https://easychair.org/publications/paper/hkMc
	https://doi.org/10.29007/hxkz

BibTeX entry

@inproceedings{ASC2022:Step_Towards_Automated_Tool,
  author    = {Eric M. Wetzel and Muhammad Umer and Will Richardson and Justin Patton},
  title     = {A Step Towards Automated Tool Tracking on Construction Sites: Boston Dynamics SPOT and RFID},
  booktitle = {ASC2022. 58th Annual Associated Schools of Construction International Conference},
  editor    = {Tom Leathem and Wes Collins and Anthony Perrenoud},
  series    = {EPiC Series in Built Environment},
  volume    = {3},
  publisher = {EasyChair},
  bibsource = {EasyChair, https://easychair.org},
  issn      = {2632-881X},
  url       = {/publications/paper/hkMc},
  doi       = {10.29007/hxkz},
  pages     = {488-496},
  year      = {2022}}

Download PDF Open PDF in browser