The Challenge
Traditional manual on-site cutting of bespoke paving slabs that need to fit around street furniture, kerbs, lamp posts, drain covers and other obstructions in public places creates significant issues in urban infrastructure projects. These custom shapes required to complete the entire paving slab laying process in these public areas are challenging for a variety of reasons. Manual cutting processes for irregular shaped slabs lead to high noise levels, generation of carcinogenic silica dust and wastewater, causing safety risks to workers, public disruption through road and footway closures, and material waste of approximately 10%. The overall goal of this project was to drive efficiency and innovation into this area of the construction industry and modernize the paving slab cutting process, that has not seen any significant change in 70 years. The consortium wanted to provide the construction workers with the ability to automatically cut custom slabs off site, so that they could then be transported to site and laid with ease and speed.
What We Did
Eurovia UK led this Distributed Automated Cutting System (DACS) project in partnership with Loop Technology and the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC). Applying our expertise in metrology, advanced manufacturing software and robotic machining, we helped develop an automated solution that combined a tablet for 3D scanning of the paving area, a software solution for pattern analysis and material optimization, and a robot with a machining tool that precisely cut the necessary paving slabs. Together the consortium constructed a realistic paving testbed, selected suitable portable scanning equipment, and successfully demonstrated the full end-to-end workflow—from site scanning and gap identification through to custom block designs and robot-produced paving slabs.
The Outcome
The DACS project successfully proved the technical feasibility of fully automated, off-site production of tailor-made custom paving slabs, alongside straight cut slabs.
This automated machining system, called IntelliPave, would offer a new approach to laying bespoke paving that would drive efficiency into the process for construction workers.
The Process
- Whole slabs are laid first in the designated area by construction workers.
- An operator then scans the area that requires bespoke cut paving slabs using the tablet.
- This 3D scan data is fed back to the offsite facility where the automated construction cutting system is located.
- Robotic pathways are generated and Intellipave system cuts bespoke paving shapes to fit in the areas around street furniture.
- Those paving slabs are transported to the site and construction workers lay them in place. This removes the messy and hazardous manual cutting of slabs on site, where the area needs to cordoned off and time is consumed monitoring tools, swapping blades and refuelling.
Projected benefits of this approach include a 40–50% improvement in productivity, reducing material waste from 10% to approximately 3% (saving around 16 lorry-loads per typical contract), and the elimination of on-site noise, dust and hazards. For a typical year-long paving scheme, disruption can be shortened by nearly one month. The solution enhances worker safety, minimizes public inconvenience, and supports more sustainable urban regeneration through modern methods of construction.
