PROBLEM

SOLUTION?

Today, operators manually control different sized heavy machinery to smash and crush the concrete structure into dusty bits. All of these machines consume a lot of energy to operate. Water has to be sprayed constantly with fire hoses to prevent harmful dust from spreading around. After the work is done, big machines scoop up the rebar and concrete mixture and transfer them to the recycle stations outside the city. There, the waste needs to be separated manually. Concrete needs to be crushed with power crushers in several stages, end result of which can only be used for simple construction layouts. The metals are melted to be re-used. These operations all require heavy machinery.

Hydro demolition is a technology tat is used today for scarifying or de-constructing reinforced concrete surfaces for repairing or to get rid of it. Even though it doesnt recycles water it still is an effective low energy technique. Pre-cast concrete building blocks are also very efficient way of constructing new dwellings in a short period of time with less disturbance to its surroundings. The idea of ERO sprang after my researches in Moscow, Sweden and my personal experiences in the construction field. Instead of using brute force to smash, why not use the cavitation force of water and get clean material out for re -use. Could we recycle the water and feed it back into the system somehow?

THE CHALLENGE
- Too many steps are involved during current techniques. - Steps are too complex, time consuming and requires a lot of energy. - End result of operations have very little re-useability - In city Transport is expensive and hard to operate because of traffic. - How might we produce Assets instead of Waste material? - There is a scarcity of raw materials, energy, water and landfill areas. - How might we keep things happening within city walls? - Transporting heavy machinerty is always costly. - Separation Process is done manualy and with heavy machinery.
DEMOLISH
Vibration Dust Pollution Sound pollution Done manually Done with separate units Requires experienced operation Adds more Energy consumption Being Done Manually Takes time Traffic City Traffic Regulations Very limited Options to re-use Quality Regulations Standards

CONTAIN to TRANSPORT

TRANSPORT

CONTAIN to SEPARATE

SEPARATE

TRANSPORT

CRUSH
High Energy Consumption

SCREEN

CONTAIN to TRANSPORT

TRANSPORT

RE-USE

Cross Contamination

Visual Impacts

Loss of containment volume because of uneven materials

Loss of containment volume because of uneven materials

Lack of Accomodation Spce

Traffic Regulations

City Traffic Takes Time Adds extra step to the process Adds extra energy consumption to the process

Weight Restrictions

Very Limited variations of end products

Non-Asset quality

Competition with 1st quality products

RESEARCH & CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT

First phase of the project was the usual research phase. After interviewing field engineers and a recycling company representative I have arranged some field trips into Moscow(Russia), Vienna(Austria) and rebro(Sweden). Moscow is one of the worlds fastest growing city and there I had the chance to interview officials and take video footage within highly prestigious construction sites to examine in detail afterwards. Then I have consulted mechanical engineers and some marketing people in Sweden and Austria and had the opportunity to learn the base mechanics.

During the second phase of the project, I have started to develop and refine the concept further. I have used 1/10 scale mock-up models, sketching, software animated simulations and several component layout techniques to form the inner basis for the final result. The technology was there so I had to lay it out properly and logically to serve the solution purposes of the project. I also have re-consulted designers and engineers several times along the way. I have tried to stick with the existing technologies and adapt them as a part of the solution.

ERO is a Concrete Deconstruction Robot designed to disassemble reinforced concrete structures and enable the building materials to be re-used for new pre-fabricated concrete buildings. Current techniques of concrete demolition requires a lot of power crushing, separation and machinery. Not to mention waste of water in order to prevent dust pollution during operation. Transferring waste material to recycle stations outside the city wastes time and the end result of which can only be re-used in very limited areas. ERO uses water jets to crack the concrete surface to disassemble

concrete and sucks up the mixed debris. It cleanly separates the waste mixture and packages the cleaned material. What was previously waste, now turns into labelled packaged asset to be transferred right away into concrete pre-casting stations to be remoulded into new building blocks. No dust, no waste, no separation. Only clean bags of aggregate to be re-used and rust and dust free rebar to be cut and re-used directly.

MAIN FEATURES
Water Transfer Slurry suction Power Transfer
Hose Seal Rings

Reinforced Flex Suction &Transfer Hose

Aggregate & Air Suction

Boom Arm & Water Transfer Canal Back Vantilation Air Outlets Side Sensor & Camera Bundle Emergency StopButton

Hose Release Cuff

Secondary Water-Pressurizer

Water Level Control lid

360 Degree Spin rings

Water Tank QuickAccess Door

Back Sensor & Camera Bundle

Hose Attachment Lock Handle

Omni-Directional Tracks (can both roll & Tumble) allows ERO to move both directions without taking any turns or re-adjustments.

Back Maintenance shaft

Multi-material Transfer Hose

HOW DOES THE SYSTEM WORK?

An autonomous fleet of ERO is placed strategically within the building. They scan the surroundings and determine a route with which they will execute the operation. Once EROs starts working, they literally erase the building. ERO de-constructs with high pressure water, sucks and separates the mixture of aggregate, cement and water. Then sends aggregate and filtered cement slurry separately down to the packaging unit. Clean aggregate is packed into labelled big bags and sent to concrete

pre-cast stations nearby for re-use. Water is re-cycled back into the system, Packaging unit provides ERO with vacuum suction, water and electrical power. Turbulence dynamos placed within the air suction route produces some percent of power back. Nothing is land filled or sent away with extra operations. Rebar is now cleaned from concrete, dust and rust. It is ready to be cut and re-utilized immediately. Every bit of the load bearing structure is reusable for new building blocks.

HOW DOES ERO MOVE?

Omni-directional tracks, is a track system that can move within perpendicular routes without taking turns. This allowed ERO to move through doorways and re-position freely. It also allows the system to get rid of the hydraulic stabilizers and simplifies the structure. Omnicrawler technology is founded in a noted university in Japan and currently being developped by a team of proficient scientists.

HOW DOES ERO SEPARATE ?

ERO uses, Hydro demolition, Centrifugal Decanter as its separation technologies. Hydro demolition is used today to scarify or to get rid of concrete for repairment reasons. It attacks the micro-cracks on the concrete surface with high pressure water jets and make it come apart. This way you dont damage the rebar while applying

hydraulic brute force to pulverize but peel off the concrete smartly. Hydrodemolition usually wastes a lot of water ecause it does not separate and recycle the water . That is why ERO uses Centrifugal Decanter as a separation tool. Centrifulgal decanter is a separation technology being used by several industries. It uses centrifugal

force to separate solids from liquids. In contrast to todays high energy demanding techniques, ERO starts separating right from the beginning. Water, which otherwise be used to prevent dust, is uset to do the work itself. Even though all of the water is impossibl to recycle, never the less most of it it is fed back to the system.

Rubber Contact Dampner

Air Sucton Canal

Water Lances Water Flow indicators

Air & Solids Separation Chamber Separated Aggregate Outlets Aggregate Collection Chamber Centrifugal Separator

Boom Sensor & Camera Bundle Wall Scratch ring 360 Degree Spin ring 360 Degrees Hose attachment Joint Front Sensor & Camera Bundle

Water Tank (for Dilution and Continuous water supply)

Main Control & Software maintenance monitor

Turbulance Dynamo (to re-produce additional electricity from the air suction turbulance)

Separated Water Outlets

Primary Access Door

Head Lights

Separated Water Collection Chamber Power Packs

Crawler Weight Bearer 1

Front Access Door

Fresh Water Feed

Aggregate Transfer Screw Access Door

Main Outlet for Material transfer

Filtered Cement Slurry Suction

Crawler Weight Bearer 2

Lift Bails

Crawler Outer Shell Crawler Maintenance Access Points

Aggregate Transfer Screw Engine Aggregate Transfer Screw Housing Water pressurizer pump

Cement Filter