MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2019
A Melbourne, Australia-based company is bringing yet another augmented reality tool to construction workers, this time into the process of bricklaying and other masonry projects.
The Process
Instead of using a program that enables robots to complete a job, Fologram aims to help workers' construction complex designs with digital instructions that are virtually superimposed on the work space.
This feature provides a step-by-step guide during the construction process, allowing humans to adapt as the structure erects—something robots aren’t able to do.
Fologram Talks: Holographic Brickwork from Fologram on Vimeo.
The Fologram app works with files from Rhino, a 3D modeling program, and translates them into instructions that are then projected into head-set displays in a set of HoloLens, augmented reality glasses from Microsoft.
Construction workers wear the head sets and can see where to put each brick in a complicated structure.
Last year, The University of Tasmania’s Architecture and Design program hosted the company for a workshop that focused on architectural scale design and fabrication.
“The automation of labelling and locating of CNC cut parts in a structure, augmenting a lathe with a hologram or visualizing physical simulations at scale on the HoloLens are just a few of the applications taken from idea to reality during the five days of the workshop,” the school said.
A case study video posted by the company shows crews from Tasmanian company All Brick using the technology to build a structure in under seven hours that would have taken them weeks.
“This would take, like, two weeks,” said Colin Barratt, CEO of All Brick, referring to the team’s project had they been working traditionally. “And a lot of that would have to be, you know, made up. You know what I mean? You’re not going to get it exactly.”
“The really exciting thing about this project,” said Cameron Newnham, Fologram CTO, “is that now Colin and his team can approach architects and enable them to design more complex things knowing that he has the capability to build them.”
Tagged categories: Augmented reality; Masonry; Technology; Tools & Equipment
