Robotic Painting of High-Rise Building Façades

Painting works on external walls of buildings are usually carried out using rollers and brushes. To work on high-rise buildings,workers are hoisted on suspended scaffold gondola systems.  Despite stringent safety protocols, the inherent risks of working at considerable heights. If the safety procedure is not followed properly, or if an unexpected equipment malfunction occurs, a serious accident may result. 

Additionally, it is becoming increasingly difficult to recruit workers, resulting in a manpower shortage. It is thus becoming necessary to look into ways to reduce reliance on manual labour for building painting works. 

TMS Alliances would like to explore robotic solutions to replace current conventional painting methods that require the use of gondolas or other hoisting equipment. Such a system can significantly decrease the need for human workers to be exposed to the dangers of working at height. By automating the painting process, the reliance on manual labour can be reduced. 

Also, robots can paint large surfaces more quickly and consistently than human workers, potentially improving the efficiency of painting projects. They can be programmed to apply paint with precise control over thickness and coverage, leading to a higher quality finish. They may even navigate complex environments and overcome obstacles that would pose challenges to human workers

TMS Alliances is looking for a robotic solution for the painting of external walls of high-rise buildings.

The solution should:

• Negate the need to use gondolas, boom lifts, and other work-at-height equipment;
• Be able to operate unpiloted during the painting process;
• Be compatible with currently available painting materials and technologies;
• Be compatible with building mapping standards (for example, DJI Mapping and BIM) to enable automated painting;
• Enable paint to be applied to at least 80% of external walls; 
• Enable paint to be applied without contaminating the surrounding environment (that is, no overspray); and
• Achieve improvement in productivity by 50% compared to conventional methods.

Good to have:

• Be able to apply paint to hard-to-reach surfaces or corners.

TMS Alliances will facilitate a testbed at one of their job sites, which includes high-rise buildings such as HDB estates. 

TMS Alliances will also facilitate relevant regulatory clearances and processes for the selected solution provider.

The Info Session's content is only available through the resource button below.