In a first for Dubai, Besix subsidiary Six Construct will use a self-climbing robot developed by Schindler to drill anchor bolts into the bare concrete of the elevator shafts of the 340m Uptown Tower going up now.
Made available to the market in November 2020, the Schindler R.I.S.E. robot (short for “Robotic Installation System for Elevators”) will propel itself on wheels up the shafts, drilling precision holes to set the anchor bolts needed for the elevator guide rails and landing doors.
It reads data from the building’s digital model and scans the surface to find the correct spot, avoiding rebar.
Designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, Uptown Tower is scheduled to be the first building completed in the Uptown Dubai district in the DMCC Free Zone, with expected delivery in 2022. It will house a luxury hotel and apartments.
Commenting on the use of the robot, Six Construct’s project director Luis Miguel Monteiro said Covid-19 had accelerated the use of digital processes.
In development since 2017, Schindler R.I.S.E. was nominated as a finalist for the Innovation Award 2019 by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitats, and was a finalist in 2020’s Swiss Technology Award.
Uptown Tower will be only the third deployment of Schindler R.I.S.E. after its use last year at Vienna’s TrIIIple project and the Varso Tower in Warsaw.