Development of the Mechatronically Assisted Mason's Aide (MAMA). ConstructionProductivity Advancement Research (CPAR) Program

摘要

This report describes the development of a mechanical assisted device tofacilitate the lifting and placing of masonry block by masonry construction workers. A mechatronically assisted mason's aide (MAMA) was developed as a cooperative effort between the U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratories and the International Masonry Institute. MAMA uses robotic technologies to enhance the productivity of masonry craftsmen and thus alleviates injuries associated with lifting and handling heavy masonry units. MAMA is an article manipulator system that mounts on mast type scaffolding making it capable of alignment compensation for scaffold nonalignment, limited movement about two vertical axes, and a generally horizontal movement along a trolley track parallel to wall construction. MAMA has a gripper for grasping heavy objects such as concrete masonry units and a control handle for raising and lowering a lift cable and for locking and unlocking brakes on the pivot arms and trolley track. A prototype unit was constructed and field tested, and was presented at an international masonry union conference and training seminar. Feedback from the field test and the conference/seminar will be part of the production engineering for MAMA. It is estimated that it could be available for concrete masonry construction by April 1996. (MM).