For centuries, the construction industry used two simple tools to lay out building floor plans: a tape measure and a chalk line. The tape measure and marker process are slow and prone to human error that impacts schedules and budgets. Errors cause rework, which typically accounts for 10% of the cost of a construction project.
Dusty eliminates the conventional, labour-intensive process of physically transferring building plans onto the floor with a robot programmed at the job site to automate the same task. The Dusty FieldPrinter robot loads a digital version of the floorplan and then prints the layout on the ground for features such as walls, doors, plumbing and electrical chases. This is performed at speeds roughly five times faster than a human and to within one-sixteenth of an inch to specification.
Dusty’s FieldPrinter is a battery-powered mobile robot that operates for long periods in a variety of weather conditions. It includes many different electronic devices, including sensors, drive motors and motorised components, computationally-heavy processors and a printer – all of which have different operating voltage and current requirements. The core of the FieldPrinter is designed by OLogic using power components sourced from Vicor. After trying discrete power solutions for its robot, OLogic soon discovered the benefits of changing to a modular approach to building power delivery networks (PDNs) for robots and turned to Vicor. Vicor modules, such as the ZVS buck regulator, are extremely cost-efficient given the 200 to 300 W of power they deliver and their 97% efficiency.
“The parts we’ve been using most lately are the Vicor ZVS buck regulators,” said Ted Larson, CEO of Ologic. “We use them everywhere on mobile robots now. I don’t ever have to think about, ‘Oh, I need 5 or 10 amps at 12 volts, so I’m going to go build my own supply.’ I don’t ever think that way anymore.”
With a long battery life and state-of-the-art power conversion technology supplied by Vicor, Dusty’s robotics innovation is helping digitise the construction industry.
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