Project Details
Projekt
Adaptive Bodenplattform
Subject Area
Construction Engineering and Architecture
Term
Funded in 2025
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 555442634
The instrument consists of a fully configurable platform capable of replicating realistic terrain topography and / or complex geometries. The platform allows carrying out tests using soil repeatably, rigorously and informatively. Repeatability is achieved by a novel, tailor-made, fluidization system to reinstate initial conditions of the soil after each experiment. This provides flexibility that does not exist in other facilities testing soil at large scale anywhere else. It also allows performing an order of magnitude more tests than traditional methods, as one could theoretically perform up to 10 tests per day (using robot locomotion tests as an example), compared to 1 per week (or 50 times more than with traditional methods). The platform, installed in the already existing 6,2 m x 3,2 m rectangular pit at the Institute of Geomechanics and Underground Technology (GUT) of RWTH Aachen, is equipped with 324 actuators that can prop an articulated platform to create different topographies. The ground material can be deposited on the deformed platform or prior to deformation to achieve the required levels. A high accuracy tracking and deformation monitoring system can measure the movement of any structure or the soil, by measuring markers at frequencies of up to 300 Hz. Hence, being capable of modelling tests dynamically. Among the applications, these include: robot-ground interaction for robots locomoting or building on the ground, as well as those that dig into the ground navigating through it; interaction of geogrids, or geotextiles, with the ground in normal conditions, but also under extreme deformations; landslide models could be created with unprecedented detail to study their behavior but also their interaction with obstacle or existing structures; sinkhole research; foldable and origami-like concrete; 3D concrete printing on curved surfaces; or concrete shells with composite materials, to name but a few. This unique facility would be the first of its kind in the World at this scale and allow for the first time to explore multiple research topics in areas of geomechanics, robotics, structural concrete or geosynthetics. Crucially such a facility will also enable new multi-disciplinary research, where these communities can combine to tackle problems in unprecedented ways. It will attract international collaborations from researchers from robotics, geomechanics, structural concrete, textile technology, and even the automotive industries because its flexibility allows to create unique conditions.
DFG Programme
Major Research Instrumentation
Major Instrumentation
Ground Adaptive Platform
Instrumentation Group
2940 Spezielle Baustoff- und Bodenprüfgeräte, Schergeräte
Applicant Institution
Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen
