This Startup is Tackling the Construction Industry Skills Gap

螺纹钢制造业是痛苦，施工技能差距导致菌株。但是，启动Rebartek可以为此重要任务削减90％的劳动时间。

The construction industry is one of the rising opportunities for robotic automation. There are now robots at many stages throughout the entire construction lifecycle, from robots that can 3D print entire concrete houses to robots which can demolish buildings autonomously.

However, although automation is on the rise, the construction industry is still suffering from a lack of skilled workforce in some key areas. One of these shortages is the manufacturing of steel rebar.

A Norwegian startup named Rebartek is looking to change all that with their RoboDK-powered rebar manufacturing process.

Rebar Manufacturing: A Process Crying Out for Robots

Skills shortages (aka skills gaps) occur when there are not enough trained people in the wider jobs market to fill certain positions in an industry. The construction industry is full of them. For example, according to a 2016 study of one US county 38 out of 41 construction jobs had a skills gap caused by a lack of graduates with the required skills to fill key positions.

“钢筋”是一个在许多现代buildi至关重要的组件ngs. It consists of steel bars or mesh which is added to concrete to improve the structure’s strength. Concrete is very strong under compression forces, but will crack under tensile stress. Rebar adds the necessary tensile strength.

钢筋制造仍然是一个手动过程。根据Rebartek的说法，99％的螺纹钢制造业由手进行。这尤其是一个问题，因为世界各地都有短缺。在2013年的研究中，球州大学的研究人员发现，“加强钢铁和钢筋工人”在短短3年内收到了建筑业的最高薪水之一。这种薪酬升高往往是技能短缺的迹象，因为企业必须增加难以填补工作的工资。

Robots are an increasingly good solution to filling skills gaps. This is exactly what startup Rebartek aims to achieve.

Meet Rebartek

Rebraptek首席执行官Max Trommer在建筑行业拥有令人印象深刻的经验。他告诉我们：

“I have been working on construction sites for the last 15 years. On my last project, a major bridge construction, we were prefabricating rebar cages manually. I asked myself, could we use robots for this?”

Rebartek使用工业机器人在短时间内制造高质量的钢筋笼。这种自动化方法提供了很大的可扩展性。根据Rebartek的说法，他们是世界上第一家的公司。

但是，为一项既定的任务带来新技术并不总是容易的。新的基于机器人的解决方案通常需要开创性的心态。谢天谢地，Trommer有充足的经验。

在创建Rebartek之前，Max Trommer对建筑行业引入新技术并不陌生。他已经开发了Web应用程序，以改善道路建设项目的工作流程，并推出新的项目管理软件到建立建筑业务。

With his team, Trommer hopes that his robotic solution will make waves in rebar manufacture.

How Rebartek Uses RoboDK

Trommer explained the whole process to us:

“The raw materials are delivered as straight ~12m long bars or as rebar wound-up on coils. First, each rebar goes into a bending machine that straightens, bends and cuts it into the specified shapes. Robots then preassemble those into “cages”.

The team’s solution is based around two KUKA manipulators. One robot uses a welding tool and the other has a customized gripper.

机器人执行的两项任务是：

1. 挑选和地方- 夹具机器人拾取了个人长度的钢筋，并将它们放在支持框架中。例如，在该视频中，它们使用的是短长度的钢筋并将它们焊接到方形格子图案中。当焊缝完成时，机器人使用夹具顶部的自定义附件拾取笼子。
2. 焊接— The other robot uses a welding tool to join the pieces of rebar. As we discussed in a previous article, robot welding has some great advantages over traditional welding and is easier to achieve than many people think.

Working in tandem, the two robots are able to achieve a potentially continuous output of prefabricated rebar cages with consistent weld quality. The team can also customize the cage design to meet the needs of their clients and use a workflow tailored to their client’s needs.

The benefits, as Trommer explained to us, are huge:

“Our tests show that cage installation saves 90% labour and time on-site compared to in-situ installation on the critical path.”

通过Robodk，团队发现很容易编制机器人，无缝地一起工作。其离线编程意味着它们可以解决小型系列项目，这是建筑业的典型挑战。

The Top 3 Reasons Rebartek Chose RoboDK

Robodk是什么，使其成为Rebartek的最佳选择？一个决定因素是其广泛的机器人模型库

Trommer告诉我们：

“RoboDK enabled us to first simulate the process without investing in expensive hardware or software. It also has a good User Interface.”

The team’s top reasons for choosing RoboDK were:

1. It’s easy to learn- 我们认为Robodk是学习最简单的离线编程解决方案之一，似乎重新开始与我们同意。他们认为这一点我们的文档非常好;它帮助他们轻松起床并跑步（他们也给了我们一些指针，以进一步改善它，我们总是欣赏。让我们知道in the forum if you have suggestions of your own.)
2. 它通过API具有巨大的灵活性- Robodk API允许在机器人项目中实现巨大的灵活性。虽然我们的许多用户坚持其图形界面，但只有当您开始使用API​​开始编程时，您只能欣赏Robodk的真正动力。Rebartek对他们的解决方案有很大的计划，因此这是至关重要的。
3. 它是制造商不可知论者— Unlike many offline programming solutions, RoboDK is not tied down to any particular robot manufacturer. This was a big benefit for Rebartek as it allowed them to properly assess their solution with a UR robot before investing in two large KUKA robots. For more information, see our article Will Offline Programming Work With My Robot?

什么是重新开始的

Max Trommer and his team have a very promising business model already. But, they are not going stop there.

Rebartek has some big plans for their future. He told us:

“我们的愿景是完全自动化钢筋预制流程的现场。我们正在为此开发人工智能。188金宝搏下载界面现在我们已经验证了这个概念，Robodk的API现在使我们能够自动化我们的编程过程。“

是AI动力自动化钢筋制造的未来吗？Rebartek正在尽力使其发生。他们甚至可能有助于解决技能差距。