Focus Area A

The adoption of 3D concrete printing (3DCP) requires a new generation of construction workforce who are skilled with fundamental knowledge in these topics and beyond, catered to worker type, education and skill level. The goal of this project is to develop fundamental 3DCP training for the industry, placed into a broader, multifaceted curriculum, for the education of 3D concrete printing (3DCP) used in the design and construction of affordable housing.

This project combines the areas of human-computer interaction (HCI) with construction robotics. Seven junior students from the computer science department specialized in HCI collaborated closely with two graduate students in construction engineering in the ARCADE lab to integrate a ground robot (Husky by Clearpath) and a drone (Tello Edu by DJI) to enable collaboration between two robotic agents on construction sites.

The goal of this 4-VA collaborative research was to establish partnership between female junior faculty at Virginia Tech and George Mason University to conduct educational research on STEM pathways of robotics and artificial intelligence. The research team worked on a ground robot platform i.e. Husky robot by Clearpath and an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) i.e. Mavic 3 Pro by DJI, to address research questions.