Automating Cities: Design, Construction, Operation and Future Impact (Advances in 21st Century Human Settlements)

363 Pages·2021·15.015 MB·English

by  Brydon T. Wang (editor), C. M. Wang (editor)

Advances in 21st Century Human Settlements
Brydon T. Wang
C. M. Wang Editors
Automating
Cities
Design, Construction, Operation and
Future Impact
Advances in 21st Century Human Settlements
Series Editor
Bharat Dahiya, College of Interdisciplinary Studies, Thammasat University,
Bangkok, Thailand
Editorial Board
Andrew Kirby, Arizona State University, Tempe, USA
Erhard Friedberg, Sciences Po-Paris, France
Rana P. B. Singh, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India
Kongjian Yu, Peking University, Beijing, China
Mohamed El Sioufi, Monash University, Australia
Tim Campbell, Woodrow Wilson Center, USA
Yoshitsugu Hayashi, Chubu University, Kasugai, Japan
Xuemei Bai, Australian National University, Australia
Dagmar Haase, Humboldt University, Germany
Indexed by SCOPUS
This Series focuses on the entire spectrum of human settlements – from rural to
urban,indifferentregionsoftheworld,withquestionssuchas:Whatfactorscause
and guide the process of change in human settlements from rural to urban in
character,fromhamletsandvillagestotowns,citiesandmegacities?Isthisprocess
different across time and space, how and why? Is there a future for rural life? Is it
possibleornottohaveindustrial developmentinruralsettlements,andhow? Why
does ‘urban shrinkage’ occur? Are the rural areas urbanizing or is that urban areas
are undergoing ‘ruralisation’ (in form of underserviced slums)? What are the
challenges faced by ‘mega urban regions’, and how they can be/are being
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growth onone handand ecosystemrestoration andconservationon theother –for
the future sustainability of human habitats? How and what new technology is
helping to achieve sustainable development in human settlements? What sort of
changesinthecurrentplanning,managementandgovernanceofhumansettlements
are needed to face the changing environment including the climate and increasing
disaster risks? What is the uniqueness of the new ‘socio-cultural spaces’ that
emergeinhumansettlements,andhowtheychangeovertime?Asruralsettlements
become urban, are the new ‘urban spaces’ resulting in the loss of rural life and
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spaces’ within the urbanizing world, and how? What isthe emerging nature of the
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perspectivesthathelpunderstandthehuman-environment-culturecomplexthrough
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and in the future? The Series, therefore, welcomes contributions with fresh
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More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/13196
Brydon T. Wang C. M. Wang
(cid:129)
Editors
Automating Cities
Design, Construction, Operation and Future
Impact
123
Editors
BrydonT. Wang C. M.Wang
Queensland University of Technology Schoolof Civil Engineering
Brisbane, QLD,Australia TheUniversity of Queensland
St.Lucia, QLD,Australia
ISSN 2198-2546 ISSN 2198-2554 (electronic)
Advances in 21stCentury HumanSettlements
ISBN978-981-15-8669-9 ISBN978-981-15-8670-5 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8670-5
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Contents
The Machine Metropolis: Introduction to the Automated City . . . . . . . 1
Brydon T. Wang
Automation of the Design Process
Designing Human–Machine Interactions in the Automated City:
Methodologies, Considerations, Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Martin Tomitsch and Marius Hoggenmueller
Automating Kinetic Screen Design from an Origami Fold. . . . . . . . . . . 51
Joseph Lim
From Factory to Site—Designing for Industrial Robots Used
in On-Site Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Dan Luo and Lei Yu
Automation of Construction and Building Services
3D Printing and Housing: Intellectual Property and Construction
Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Brydon T. Wang and Matthew Rimmer
Automation in Structural Health Monitoring of Transport
Infrastructure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Lihai Zhang, Nilupa Herath, Babar Nasim Khan Raja, Shilun Chen,
Saeed Miramini, and Colin Duffield
Framework for Automated UAV-Based Inspection of External
Building Façades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Yiqing Liu, Yuehan Lin, Justin K. W. Yeoh, David K. H. Chua,
Lawrence W. C. Wong, Marcelo H. Ang Jr., W. L. Lee,
and Michael Y. L. Chew
v
vi Contents
Design and Automation for Prefabricated Prefinished Volumetric
Construction in Tall Buildings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
J. Y. Richard Liew and Y. S. Chua
Impact and Implications of the Automated City
Automation of Land Expansion: Prefabrication of Floating Platforms
for Expansion of Cities onto Adjacent Water Bodies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
C. M. Wang and K. H. Jung
Automating Fab Cities: 3D Printing and Urban Renewal . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Matthew Rimmer
Connected and Automated Vehicles: Opportunities and Challenges
for Transportation Systems, Smart Cities, and Societies . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Anshuman Sharma and Zuduo Zheng
Smart Cities as Panopticon: Highlighting Blockchain’s Potential
for Smart Cities Through Competing Narratives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Lachlan Robb and Felicity Deane
From Automation to Autonomy: Technological Sovereignty
for Better Data Care in Smart Cities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Marcus Foth, Irina Anastasiu, Monique Mann, and Peta Mitchell
Automating Trustworthiness in Digital Twins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
Brydon T. Wang and Mark Burdon
The Machine Metropolis: Introduction
to the Automated City
BrydonT.Wang
Abstract Theautomationofcitiesthroughbothmechanisationanddigitisationhas
hadaphenomenalimpactonourwayoflifeandthedesign,constructionandoper-
ation of our cities. This mechanisation has led to the deployment of robotics and
3D-printers on construction sites. Drones are now equipped with cameras that are
usedtomeasuretheprogressofconstructionworksandmonitorassetsforstructural
defects. Simultaneously, our cities are increasingly filled with various sensors that
extract data from our digital trails, accelerating the datafication of our urban envi-
ronment.Thischapteroutlinesthebroadthemesofthebook,exploringtheimpact
oftechnologiesofautomationonthecityinthreeways:theautomationofthedesign
processtoprovideoptimisedsolutionstodesignproblems.Second,theautomationof
constructionprocessesandbuildingmaintenanceprogrammes,includingadvances
onhowwecollectandanalysesensordata.Third,howtechnologiesofautomation
couldpotentiallyimpactourwayoflifeincities,suchashowweexpandourcities,
how we manufacture and fabricate what we need and want, how we utilise urban
data to navigate around a city to transport people and goods, or use urban data to
maketrusteddecisionsaboutacity.
· · · · · ·
Keywords Datafication Smartcity Automation Trust Drones 3Dprinting
Sensordata
1 TowardsaBraverAutomatedFutureforCities
Towardtheendof2019andthefirsthalfof2020,thepandemicofanovelcoron-
avirussweptinitiallythroughtheChinesecityofWuhanandthenoutwardsacross
China before making its effects felt globally. The virulent impact of the disease
overloadedinternationalhealthcaresystems.TomeetthehealthchallengeinWuhan,
Chinamobiliseditsbuilderstoconstructthe1000-bedHuoshenshanhospitalandthe
1600-bedLeishenshanhospital,eachinunderafortnight(Jancowicz2020).While
B
B.T.Wang( )
QueenslandUniversityofTechnology,Brisbane,QLD,Australia
e-mail:[email protected]
©SpringerNatureSingaporePteLtd.2021 1
B.T.WangandC.M.Wang(eds.),AutomatingCities,Advancesin21stCentury
HumanSettlements,https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8670-5_1
2 B.T.Wang
theuniqueChineselabourenvironmentcontributedtothepossibilityofsuchefficient
constructiontimeframes,itistheuseofprefabricationandmodularity—madeavail-
ablethroughtheadoptionoftechnologiesofautomationintheChineseconstruction
industry—thatallowedtheextraordinaryshorttimeframestobeachieved.1
Automation in the city is not a novel occurrence. Historical lamp lighters who
manuallylitstreetlampswerereplacedwithelectrifiedstreetlighting(Jeffries2016).
Liftattendantswhousedtomanageliftswerereplacedwithautomatedlifts.Carsthat
are equipped with varying levels of automation in parking assistance and adaptive
cruisecontrolnowoperateonourstreets.Thismechanisationofvariousfunctions
withinthecityhasprogressedtothedeploymentofroboticsand3D-printersinoff-
sitemanufacturingandonconstructionsites.Dronesarenowequippedwithcameras
that are used to measure the progress of construction works (Kemp 2017; Dupont
etal.2017)andmonitorassetsforstructuraldefects(Zhangetal.2019).Ourcities
areincreasinglyfilledwithvarioussensorsthatextractdatafromourdigitaltrails.
Asweinteractwiththesesensorscarriedasdevicesonourbodiesorembeddedin
thebuiltenvironment,weactivelybringintoourcitiesanewphaseinautomation—
the move from mechanisation to a digitisation and datafication of urban life. The
resultantautomationofcitiesthroughbothmechanisationanddigitisationhashada
phenomenalimpactonourwayoflifeandthedesign,constructionandoperationof
ourcities.
Thisapproachtodefiningautomationastheadoptionofincreasinglayersoftech-
nologytodrivethecity,andtherelativelyrecentintegrationofdigitalsystems,frame
ourexplorationofthe‘smartcity’.Fothetal.noteinChap.13(FromAutomation
toAutonomy:TechnologicalSovereigntyforBetterDataCareinSmartCities)that
thesmartcityisasiteof‘fusionofdataandautomation’,requiringustoconsider
boththetechnologyanditssocio-politicalimpacts.Thisbookexplorestheimpact
oftechnologiesofautomationonthecityinthreewaysthatbroadlycorrespondto
thethreepartsofthisbook.InPartA,thebookexploresautomationofthedesign
process—howtechnologyhasbeenharnessedtosiftthroughawiderangeofdesign
solutionstoprovideoptimisedsuggestionstoadesignproblem.
Thesecondwayinwhichautomationisexploredisintheautomationofconstruc-
tionprocessesandbuildingmaintenanceprogrammes.PartBofthebookinvestigates
howtheconstructionindustrycanfurtherachieveefficiencygainsbydeployingtech-
nologies of automation in the form of robots, 3D printers, drones on construction
sites,andnewtechnologiesinthemanufacturingprocessesoff-site.
The third way in which automation is presented is how these technologies of
automationcouldpotentiallyimpactourwayoflifeincities.Asthesetechnologies
ofautomationareincreasinglyintegratedintotheurbanfabric,theyimpactthesocio-
politicallandscapeofourcities.PartCofthebookveerstowardamorespeculative
aspect of future-casting where we consider the impacts of automation on how we
expandourcities,howwemanufactureandfabricatewhatweneedandwant,how
weutiliseurbandatatonavigatearoundacitytotransportpeopleandgoods,oruse
1ThedesignsforthehospitalswerebasedonapriorhospitalbuilttotackletheSARS-epidemicin
2003(Ankel2020).
TheMachineMetropolis:IntroductiontotheAutomatedCity 3
urbandatatomaketrusteddecisionsaboutacity.Thesechaptersconsiderhowthe
deploymentoftechnologiesofautomationwillneedtobecontinuouslyfine-tunedto
addressthesocialnormsandvaluesthatareemerginginourcities,particularlythe
privacyofoccupants.Thisrequiresustoconsiderhowcommunityengagement,our
‘rightto the city’ (Lefebvre 1996), and legal reform can be harnessed to automate
thecityinsensitiveandhuman-centredways.
Giventhattheprojectscapturedinthisbookwillsometimestouchonthedesign
process, construction methodologies and the future impact of the deployed tech-
nology of automation, there is some overlap between the broad categories of the
book. Projects presented in one part of the book willstillprovide guidance on the
impact of the technology in the other two parts. This first chapter serves to intro-
ducethechapterscontainedwithinthisbookandprovidecontextforthedesignand
constructionchallengesthattheauthorstacklewithintheirvariouschapters;andto
pointtothepotentialimpactsofthesetechnologiesthatwillbeexploredtowardsthe
endofthebook.
2 AutomationinSolvingDesignProblems
Part A of this book explores the impact of automation on the search for design
solutions to technical briefs. While we are beginning to see a plethora of ways in
whichautomationoftheconstructionprocesscanoccur,thereisaperceptionthatthe
creative functions fulfilled by designers (including urban planners, architects, and
engineers)arenotasvulnerabletoreplacementbyautomation.
OneoftheactivitiesIruninmyarchitectureclassesonTheAutomatedCityisan
exercisewhereIhavemystudentsmapoutthetasksgiventoarchitecturalinternsand
graduatearchitects.Ithenaskthestudentstoconsiderwhatitwouldtaketoautomate
thesetasks.Acommonperceptionamongthestudentsisthatmachinesareunableto
performdesigntasksastheseareseentobehigherordercognitivefunctionsthatare
toocomplexformachinestohandle.Theirviewisreflectedina2013studybythe
UniversityofOxfordwhichfoundthattherisktoarchitectsofpotentialreplacement
byautomationsitsat1.8%(FreyandOsborne2017:58).
Despite this perception, the process of answering a design brief can be broken
down into a number of individual smaller tasks. Some of these tasks could be
performedbyamachineandtoalevelofcomplexity,speedandaccuracythatwould
exceedhumanability.Thesame2013OxfordstudysuggestedthatArchitecturaland
Civil Drafters had a 52% chance of being replaced by automation processes (Frey
and Osborne 2017: 63). Their findings indicate that some of the mechanical tasks
thatcomprisethejobofbeinganarchitect,engineerorurbanplanneraremorelikely
tobetakenupbyamachineatsomepointinthefuture.
Almosthalfacenturyago,Crosssuggestedthatautomationcouldbeappliedto
optimisefloorplans,suggestingthatthe‘tediouscalculationstoquantifytraveltime
betweenrooms’couldbereadilyperformedbyamachine(Davis2015citingCross
1980).DavisnotesthatCross’researchdidnotleadtobetterperformingbuildingsas