The construction company Dragados, with the technical collaboration of the CARTIF Technology Center, has obtained international recognition in London by having been awarded in the prestigious New Civil Engineer Tunnelling Awards 2024 for the SOGUN system, a Geometric Control System for the Guniting Robot that It represents a great advance in tunnel construction technology.
The R&D&i Department of Dragados, a company of the ACS group, with the technological support of CARTIF, have developed a system that has allowed the construction company to receive the awards corresponding to the categories “Innovation in Instrumentation & Monitoring” and ” Innovation in Tunnel Design & Construction”.
This system represents an enormously important advance in the tunnel construction process, especially in relation to shotcrete (gunite) applications. SOGUN is an automated system that is responsible for 3D scanning the interior of the tunnel through an integrated LiDAR with which it generates a cloud of georeferenced points on the surface with centimeter precision. The data obtained is automatically compared with the theoretical design of the tunnel and projects an image on the walls that identifies, through colors and numbers, the areas with excess or lack of concrete.
less than a minute
One of the most notable aspects of this system is its action time: less than one minute compared to the hour and a half and three hours involved in manual marking processes for individual points. In addition, this new process offers more information about the gunite area thanks to its ability to identify millions of points versus tens manuallywhich represents an improvement in time and quality of work in the construction of the tunnel. In this way, the shotcrete operator only needs to look at the tunnel to understand the task he must perform.
The emergence of the SOGUN system brings with it numerous benefits in terms of productivity, sustainability and safety. Productivity as it significantly reduces work times and increases the precision of finishes. Sustainability to the extent that it optimizes the use of materials, minimizing waste and reducing the environmental footprint. AND allows increasing job security, since it reduces the risks associated with manual marking in the most sensitive areas of the tunnel.
In addition to the awards from the NCE Tunnelling Conference in London, the SOGUN system has also been awarded in 2024 by the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association with the silver award in the “Product/Equipment Innovation of the Year” category.
#Dragados #Cartif #awarded #breakthrough #tunnel #construction #technology