Grant: Alliance Grants
University of Alberta
$221,611.00
Artificial Intelligence (AI) Powered Design and Manufacturing for Prefabricated Wood Buildings
EF 2024-25
Résumé
The building construction and forest industries are two important economic sectors in Alberta, Canada. The use of wood in building construction has gained significant traction over the last 10 years due to strong interest by governments and consumers to reduce the carbon footprints of building construction. This is because the building construction industry is the third largest emitter of greenhouse gas in Canada. As housing demand continues to grow and affordability decreases in major cities, current design and construction processes for wood buildings face challenges, including labour shortage and more stringent energy efficiency requirements. In recent years, the introduction of building prefabrication has shown great potential in solving these issues. Building prefabrication can provide a more environmentally friendly construction process with higher efficiency and quality, at a reduced cost. However, the adoption of prefabrication in wood building construction continues to be impeded by a few challenges, including higher design complexity and a lack of advanced manufacturing equipment to truly benefit from the building prefabrication process. The electronic age has led to substantial technological advancements in the disciplines of artificial intelligence (AI) and robot-assisted manufacturing. The proposed research evaluates the technical feasibility of implementing AI and robotics technologies into the design and manufacturing of prefabricated wood buildings, in an attempt to further boost productivity and sustainability. The overarching goal of the proposed research is to improve the design and manufacturing efficiency and reduce the costs of prefabricated wood buildings through the achievement of the following three objectives: 1) Automate the design process of wood buildings using AI and Building Information Modelling (BIM) techniques; 2) Improve the value of design by considering the demands, restrictions and requirements of manufacturing at the design stage; 3) Improve manufacturing productivity using robotics and digital twin (DT) technologies.
Programme
Alliance Grants
Bénéficiaire
Emplacement
Alberta, Canada
Type de bénéficiaire
Academia
Type
Grant
Source
NSERC's Awards Data
Tel que publié
Application id
581074-2022
Name nom
Mei, Qipei Q
Department département
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Organization id
9
Institution établissement
University of Alberta
Province en
Alberta
Province fr
Alberta
Country en
CANADA
Country fr
CANADA
Fiscal year exercice financier
2024
Competition year année de concours
2022
Award amount
221611
Program id
ALLRP
Program name en
Alliance Grants
Program name fr
Subventions Alliance
Group en
RESEARCH PARTNERSHIPS
Group fr
PARTENARIATS DE RECHERCHE
Committee code
96
Committee name en
RPP Internal Decision Cttee
Committee name fr
Cté de décision interne - PPR
Area of application code
601
Area of application group en
Construction, urban and rural planning
Area of application group fr
Construction, urbanisme et aménagement rural
Area of application en
Structural engineering
Area of application fr
Génie des charpentes
Research subject code
1100
Research subject group en
Structural engineering
Research subject group fr
Génie des structures
Research subject en
Structural engineering
Research subject fr
Génie des structures
Field of research list names en
Not available
Field of research list names fr
Non disponible
Socioeconomic objective list names en
Not available
Socioeconomic objective list names fr
Non disponible
Application title
Artificial Intelligence (AI) Powered Design and Manufacturing for Prefabricated Wood Buildings
Keywords
artificial intelligence; digital twin; generative design; lean manufacuturing; prefabricated wood building; robotics
Application summary
The building construction and forest industries are two important economic sectors in Alberta, Canada. The use of wood in building construction has gained significant traction over the last 10 years due to strong interest by governments and consumers to reduce the carbon footprints of building construction. This is because the building construction industry is the third largest emitter of greenhouse gas in Canada. As housing demand continues to grow and affordability decreases in major cities, current design and construction processes for wood buildings face challenges, including labour shortage and more stringent energy efficiency requirements. In recent years, the introduction of building prefabrication has shown great potential in solving these issues. Building prefabrication can provide a more environmentally friendly construction process with higher efficiency and quality, at a reduced cost. However, the adoption of prefabrication in wood building construction continues to be impeded by a few challenges, including higher design complexity and a lack of advanced manufacturing equipment to truly benefit from the building prefabrication process. The electronic age has led to substantial technological advancements in the disciplines of artificial intelligence (AI) and robot-assisted manufacturing. The proposed research evaluates the technical feasibility of implementing AI and robotics technologies into the design and manufacturing of prefabricated wood buildings, in an attempt to further boost productivity and sustainability. The overarching goal of the proposed research is to improve the design and manufacturing efficiency and reduce the costs of prefabricated wood buildings through the achievement of the following three objectives: 1) Automate the design process of wood buildings using AI and Building Information Modelling (BIM) techniques; 2) Improve the value of design by considering the demands, restrictions and requirements of manufacturing at the design stage; 3) Improve manufacturing productivity using robotics and digital twin (DT) technologies.
