Most transportation infrastructures are exposed to a combination of mechanical and environmental loads. Normal concrete is brittle and tends to crack, resulting in a lack of durability and frequent repair needs. This paper describes an ultra ductile cementitious composite which is highly crack resistant, with a tensile strain capacity over three hundred times that of normal concrete. Apart from...

Background and purpose: In a recent century, the amount of construction waste has increased significantly. Although the building industry has a considerable role in the development of a society, it is regarded as an environmentally destructive. Source reduction is the highest goal in the waste management hierarchy and is in priority. It also has economic benefits by reducing costs associated wi...

In this paper, we develop an autonomous construction system in which a self-contained ground robot builds a protective barrier by means of compliant pockets (i.e., filled bags). We present a stochastic control algorithm based on two biological mechanisms (stigmergy and templates) that takes advantage of compliant pockets for autonomous construction. The control algorithm guides the robot to bui...