Robots for laying out road markings

The rise of robots is not letting up within the construction industry. At RPS, working with
the Robot Plotter is an example of this. The consulting and engineering firm is driving this application around the country for faster, more efficient and safer plotting of road markings and steering lines.

The Robot Plotter is a compact, autonomous device that quickly and accurately plots welds and/or steering lines on asphalt. These lines are sprayed on the road to indicate where the weld will be located and how the machine should steer. Markings are then plotted on the new asphalt. The Robot Plotter's advanced controls use a digital drawing with the required lines and are controlled by GPS or a Total Station. "By using this device, we not only save on man-hours, we can also be more flexible and faster," commented Rijk Wandel, Project Manager Land Surveying at RPS.

Time Saving

In a few hours, this innovative device performs what usually takes a day's work manually. In addition, the compact size makes it easy to take the device anywhere. "The Robot Plotter is very user-friendly. You walk away with it in no time," speaks Rich from first experience. Another added advantage are the various settings, such as spray length, spray interval, speed or a line offsetting. "This allows us to meet project-specific needs or requirements," he continues. With the laptop, production can be easily monitored, eliminating any discussion about the meters set off. The use of strobes also makes the robot highly visible at night.

Track dimensions

Since 2017, RPS has been one of the first parties in the Netherlands to work with robotization for road construction projects. The Tiny robot purchased at the time has long and satisfactorily proven its service for this purpose. Now it is the turn of two Robot Plotters from the Dutch manufacturer Tyker, founded in 2008 as a spin-off from Wageningen University. Customers are seeing more and more applications and the demand for deployment is therefore increasing. "The work is getting bigger and bigger. We are increasingly dealing with longer and larger work surfaces. Then expanding your equipment is simply required," said Rijk. In addition to road construction, several clients have already inquired about other uses for the device. For example, the Robot Plotter can be of added value when measuring track. Think of the alignment of sleepers. The device can also be used for measuring the ground level and height, raking cross sections and marking lamps at airports.