The Chair of Individualized Production at RWTH Aachen University wins 2nd place at the bauma Innovation Award 2022.

The sustainability project ROBETON convinces the jury in the category of research and misses the victory with just one percentage point behind the winners of the Institute for Mechanical Engineering of the TU Bergakademie Freiberg with their Deep Sea Sampling project.

Munich, October 23, 2022 At the opening of the 33rd World’s Leading Trade Fair for Construction Machinery, Building Material Machines, Mining Machines, Construction Vehicles, and Construction Equipment, the bauma 2022 Innovation Award was presented on Sunday evening. The team led by Prof. Dr. Sigrid Brell-Cokcan from the Chair of Individualized Production at RWTH Aachen University won second place with the ROBETON project.

The ROBETON research project aims to dismantle concrete walls in a minimally invasive way to prepare them for reuse in the circular economy in construction. By digitally upgrading a BROKK demolition machine to a (partially) automated robot, a new sustainable process for the safe, controlled deconstruction and subsequent reuse of concrete building components as a source of secondary building products is being developed at RWTH Aachen University. Currently, there are neither fully nor partially automated solutions on the market. This gap is now to be closed.

“We will only be able to solve the challenges of our time in collaboration with industry. I am pleased that, together with our supporters and partners, we can make a creative contribution to the circular economy of construction with the ROBETON project. Instead of developing new robots, we are taking the approach of digitally developing reliable industry-proof construction machines into robots. We would like to thank the jury for this significant recognition and the exciting competition!” says Prof. Dr. Sigrid Brell-Cokcan and emphasizes: “Many thanks also to our supporters for their trust, to our partners for their active support and the entire IP team at RWTH for such passionate work!

The ROBETON research project is funded by the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs, and Spatial Development (BBSR) on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development (BMWSB) with funds from the #ZukunftBau research grant. Furthermore, the project is supported by the project partners Hilti AG and BROKK DA GmbH as well as the associated project partners PORR Group; EIFFAGE, LEONHARD WEISS, HKS Drehantriebe, Kerschgens, the ifm Group and igus.

The Bauma Innovation Award is presented every three years at bauma, the world’s leading trade fair for construction machinery, building materials machinery, mining machinery, construction vehicles, and construction equipment. With this award, the organizers honor research and development teams from companies and universities that bring cutting-edge technology for the construction, building materials, and mining industries to market maturity, while keeping an eye on resources, the environment, and people. This year, bauma will be held in Munich from October 24 to 30, 2022.

Further information: https://www.bauma-innovationspreis.de/images/nominierte-2022/pdfs/ROBETON_IP-RWTH_en.pdf