• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2015.10a
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• pp.669-670
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• 2015

Efficient management of the construction heavy equipment is required to reduce the rate of carbon emissions and on-site accidents. The intelligent excavation system (IES) will improve the construction quality and productivity through information technologies and efficient equipment operation, especially in large earthwork projects. Three-dimensional digitized ground data should be required for identifying the path of heavy equipment and work-site environment. Rapid development of terrain laser scanners (TLS) is more readily to acquire the digital data. This study suggests the '3D ground terrain processing platform (3DGTPP)' including data manipulating module and analyzing module of the scanned data for intelligent earthmoving equipment operation. The processing platform consists of six modules, including scanning, registering, manipulating, analyzing, transmitting, and storing. 3D ground terrain processing platform presented in this study will provide fundamental information for intelligent excavation system (IES), which will increase the efficiency of earthworks and safety of workers in significant.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.136-145
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• 2009

The objective of the Intelligent Excavation System (IES) is to recognize the work environment and produce work plan and automatically control the excavator through integrating sensor and robot technologies. This paper discusses one of the core technologies of IES development project, development of 3D work environment modeling. 3D laser scanner is used for 3-dimensional mathematical model that can be visualized in virtual space in 3D. This paper describes (1) how the most appropriate 3D imaging system has been chosen; (2) the development of user interface and customization of the s/w to control the scanner for IES project; (3) the development of the mobile station for the scanner; (4) and the algorithm for the automatic registration of laser scan segments for IES project. The development system has been tested on the construction field and lessons learned and future development requirements are suggested.

• Journal of KIBIM
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 2011

Earthwork is important in terms of construction time and duration, and highly related to the construction productivity. However, current earthwork system has stick to labor intensive process depending on skilled operator's heuristic decision making, so it is hard to improve overall productivity. To overcome this drawback, this paper presents a BIM based Intelligent Excavation System(IES). The BIM technology is applied in the excavation task planning system, Human-Machine Interface for remote-control/autonomous work environment, and web-based Project Management Information System(PMIS) in the IES integration process, and the results are addressed.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.130-141
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• 2011

The intelligent excavating system(IES), the development in South Korea of which has been underway since 2006, aims for the full-scale automation of the excavation process that includes a series of tasks such as movement, excavation and loading. The core elements to ensure the quality and safety of the automated excavation equipment include 3D modeling of terrain that surrounds the excavating robot and the technology for detecting objects accurately(i.e., for detecting the location of nearby loading trucks and humans as well as of obstacles positioned on the movement paths). Therefore the purpose of this research is to ensure the quality and safety of automated excavation detecting the objects surrounding the excavating robot via a 3D laser scanning system. In this paper, an algorithm for estimating the location, height, width, and shape of objects in the 3D-realized terrain that surrounds the location of the excavator was proposed. The performance of the algorithm was verified via tests in an actual earthwork field.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.457-463
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• 2009

The earthwork is essential procedure for all civil engineering projects. Because of its importance in terms of cost and time, it should be managed effectively. In light of this, The Intelligent Excavating System (IES) research consortium has established to improve the productivity, quality and safety of current excavating/earthwork system by the Ministry of Land, Transportation and Maritime Affairs (MLTM) of Korea. This paper summarizes ongoing research aimed at development knowledge and presents a framework of task planning and visualization system for IES. The task planning and visualization system consists of three functions. 1) Using digital terrain model which created by 3D laser scanner, the system can divide it and generates global/local work area so that the excavator can work through the area. 2) In order to operate and/or control the excavator, the system exports the location, paths of boom, arm and bucket data of the excavator to control center. 3) The task planning system is visualized on the computer programming aided-graphic interface which simulates the planned work processes and eventually assists the operator for the control of the excavator. The case study which we have performed, demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed system.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.487-492
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• 2009

A large-scaled research project titled "Intelligent Excavating System (IES)" sponsored by Korean government has launched in 2006. An issue of real-time 3D terrain modeling has become a crucial point for successful implementation of IES due to many application limitations of state-of-the-art techniques developed in various high-technology fields. Many feasible technologies such as laser scanning, structured lighting and so on were widely reviewed by professionals and researchers for one year. Various efforts such as literature reviews, interviews, and indoor experiments make us select a structural light technique and stereo vision technique as appropriate techniques for accomplishment of real-time 3D terrain modeling. It, however, revealed that off-the-shelf products of structural light and stereo-vision technique had many technical problems which should be resolved for practical applications in IES. This study introduces diverse methods modifying off-the-shelf package of the structural light method, one of feasible techniques and eventually allowing this technique to be successfully utilized for achieving fundamental research goals. This study also presents many efforts to resolve practical difficulties of this technique considering basic characteristics of excavating operations and particular environment of construction sites. Findings showed in this study would be beneficial for other researchers to conduct new researches for application of vision techniques to construction fields by provision of detail issues about practical application and diverse practical methods as solutions overcoming these issues.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.363-375
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• 2013

Today, a shortage of the skilled operator has been intensified gradually and the necessity of an earthwork in extreme environment operators are difficult to access is increasing for the purpose of resource development and new living space creation. For this reason, an effort to develop an unmanned excavation robot for fully automated earthwork system is continuing globally. In Korea, a research consortium called 'Intelligent Excavation System' has been formed since 2006 as a part of Construction Technology Innovation Program of Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs of Korea. Among detailed technologies of the Task Planning System is one of the core technologies of IES, this paper explains research and development process of the Local Area Design Module, which provides informatization unit to create automated excavators' work command information at operation level such as location, range, target, and sequence for excavation work. Designing of Local Area should be considered various influential factors such as excavator's specification, working mechanism, heuristics, and structural stability to create work plan guaranteed safety and effectiveness. For this research, conceptual and detail design of the Local Area is performed for analyzing design element and variable, and quantization method of design specification corresponding with heuristics and structural safety is generated. Finally, module is developed through constructed algorithm and developed module is verified.