ESR13. ROBOTIC FAST REPAIR OF ASPHALT CONCRETES (RoboFRAC)

Objectives:

To demonstrate the use of robots to fill the cracks in an asphalt road, rather than having a machine that would heat the asphalt onsite. To show that the quality of the materials is equivalent to that of the current crack filling methods.

• Task 13.1: Use of a 3D printer in the laboratory to fill cracks in asphalt mortar (bitumen and small aggregates) beams with bitumen.
• Task 13.2: Improve the lab 3D printer to fill realistic cracks in asphalt mixture. 
• Task 13.3: Build a robotic rover with a binder dispenser and use it to fill cracks with bitumen onsite.  

Expected Results:

• Demonstrate the use of a 3D printer to fill cracks in asphalt

• Build a robotic rover with a bitumen dispenser in it and use it to deliver bitumen onsite
• Understand the type of cracks that can be filled and program the robot to do that

Host Institutions:

University of Nottingham

Supervisors:

A. Garcia (UNOTT) (Nottingham, UNITED KINGDOM)

S. Wu (WUHAN) (Wuhan, CHINA)

V. Pérez Mena (CEPSA) (Madrid, SPAIN)