I, Robot

Virtual Reality-controlled robotics is a way of facilitating real timeremote teleoperation of a robot with visual and operational connectionand between the human agent and robot enabled through VR These robotsutilise teleoperation technology, allowing the user to control a robot,with the human agent distant from the physical robot and its actions.

Control and operation is achieved through Internet/Wi-Fi communication.

Currently, in the construction industry, there is under-exploitationof robotics to aid in the construction process; primarily this is due toissues such as a lack of trust between the operator and the robot.

Consequently there appears to be a lot of potential for this VRcontrolled robotic arm to be used in architecture, but the technologydeveloped in this research project needs further work particularly interms of the visualisation part to better represent the real environmentthe robotic arm is working in. However it is clear that the integrationof teleoperation and VR technology in architectural applications hasthe potential to make an impact on the way buildings are constructed,maintained, and modified.

Findings arising from the research included;• Setup needed a lot of coding knowledge,• All components needed to be on the same local network,• There needed to be an understanding of end effector quaternionposition• The visualisation of the environment was still very basic andneeds further development,• Operation was definitely a lot more user intuitive than usingmouse and keyboard• Manual coding compared to utilising a fully functional VR controlledrobotic arm felt more like an extension of an arm for an operator.

This thesis investigates the idea and implementation of virtual realitycontrolled robots to figure out how this technology could be usedfor various construction techniques as part of fabricating buildingelements. The research is structured through a series of cumulativedevelopments and experiments that incrementally build towardscreating an effective, functioning VR controlled robotic arm.