Development of an automated 3D-layout-acquisition technology to facilitate factory planning processes

Theme	Industry 4.0
Project title	Development of an automated 3D-layout-acquisition technology to facilitate factory planning processes (Instant Factory Maps)
Project duration	01.01.2017 – 31.12.2018
Press release	Layout acquisition on the fly: UAVs may prove useful in factory planning processes

Factory planning projects are time-consuming and complex. The data acquisition and analysis within the framework of the basic evaluation itself takes up to 50 percent of the project effort. Particularly the determination of the current factory layout with its different areas – e.g. stores, allocation, machines or functional areas – takes a lot of time since often no detailed and current layouts are available and the areas need to be measured by hand. Due to the high expenditures of time and costs, SMEs are often not interested in factory planning or the optimization of their factory layouts. Furthermore, 3D-planning can only be realized with great effort, which enables a better imagination and therefore better results.

To simplify this process, technologies are required for fast and low-cost data acquisition and analysis in the factory planning process. A drone-based automated 3D factory mapping could reduce the time and effort required to enable three-dimensional planning.

The aim of the research project is the development of an automated 2D- and 3D-layout-acquisition technology. For that purpose, a semi-autonomous UAV is to be used, to acquire 2D- or 3D-aerial images. An automated stitching or mapping algorithm can match the images together and create a scale image of the factory layout. The automation will also be able to interpret the scanned layout, e.g. detection and measurement of different functional areas. The acquired data can then directly be used for factory planning, e.g. creating digital 3D-images or physical 3D-printed images.

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