Design and Development of a Novel Robotic Gripper for Automated Scaffolding Assembly

Scaffolding assembly constitutes a potentially dangerous and time-consuming task within the construction process. In most industrialized nations, said assembly is the process in which most of the causalities of the Construction Industry happen, especially in projects characterized by high complexity and restricted operation space. The repetitiveness of the profile elements and of the assembly operations may open the possibility for automating the scaffolding construction process, which is however a difficult task due to the unstructured environment of construction sites and the implied strong collaboration of human and machine agents. As a possible automation solution, the startup KEWAZO proposes a novel robotic scaffolding assembly system. The solution focuses on the development of small-sized robotic climbing modules controlled as an integrated system. This paper focuses on the development of the robotic gripper of said modular system. The gripper system is validated through static analysis and the construction of a fully functional prototype. Furthermore, the system is integrated with a voice identification / authentication and control mechanism that enables it to recognize a variety of human identities and to engage with verbal commands according to the authority and privileges assigned to each individual.