The self-climbing, autonomous Robotic Installation System for Elevators R.I.S.E

[edit] 150 years to TIME’s World’s Best Company

My Schindler City Centre tour: the past, the future, and the R.I.S.E system For 150 years, Swiss manufacturing company Schindler have been making cities more mobile through their elevators, escalators, and moving walkways, and today they move a staggering two billion people a day. In October, it was announced they were a TIME’s World’s Best Company of 2024. After receiving an invite to their Trade Media Day in August, I take a flight to the beautiful city of Lucerne in Switzerland to visit Schindler’s impressive Ebikon Campus and see how the multibillion dollar company started, how it operates, and their ambitions for the future.

[edit] Schindler City Centre Tour

The first item on the agenda is the Schindler City Centre Tour: an interactive exhibition that takes us through the history of the company. After catching an escalator with projections of skyscrapers and hustle-and-bustle city sounds all around us that aim to transport us to the imagined “Schindler City”, we are greeted by a ginormous, abstract model city comprised of buildings around the world in which Schindler’s lifts operate. Scanning certain buildings with an iPad brings information about them and the sheer number of lifts each of them have in operation, as little red augmented reality lifts move up and down them on the screen. Also in the room is a timeline of the company’s history and, under glass, antique hydraulics and other parts of Schindler’s old elevators (sure to interest those more mechanically minded ATs).

Elsewhere, we see a closer look at one of the company’s very first lifts, right next to a modern and innovative design for a modern skyscraper that is two lifts on top of each other, as well as a fascinating look inside an escalator – we can literally see the gears turning. The tour ends with the tour group tapping an interactive table to design our city of the future – a dazzling display of lights and sound. This emphasis placed on the future would be further explored later in the day, during my visit to the “PORT Innovation Lab” ( see section below)

[edit] Robotic Installation System for Elevators

Speaking of the future, the most interesting part of the tour for the technologist in my eyes is the close look we get at Schindler R.I.S.E – or the Robotic Installation System for Elevators.R.I.S.E is the world’s first self-climbing,autonomous robotic installation system for elevators.

A large rectangle held by pulleys, it has a multi-jointed robot arm at its base that drills and sets the anchor bolts required for landing doors, divider beams and wall brackets. Not only this but it also scans for obstacles in its way, determines rebar locations and travels from floor to floor, all completely autonomously.All the construction team need to do is the on-site loading, as well as the transporting to and suspension into the elevator shaft. There is also a wireless user interface for the operator,with statistics and information from the robot’s work, all remotely monitored.

My informative and friendly tour guide Rolf Schwerzmann, who is also Global Account Manager, informs me use of R.I.S.E will massively increase safety and efficiency on construction sites in the future. On the safety side, well, the robot handles repetitive and physically draining tasks for workers, reduces the time they spend in elevator shafts, and limits their exposure to hazards,construction noise,vibration, and dust. In terms of efficiency, the robot can work round the clock and has set a new standard for lift system installation speed.

But if a robot can work more efficiently than a human, will widespread use of R.I.S.E – as is Schindler’s plan – potentially put construction professionals out of the job in the future? Schindler do not seem worried about that, believing that new technologies will always make the sector more appealing, which will help to attract and retain talents. And demand means buildings are growing taller and wider, and much faster,so talented people will always be needed.

Schindler R.I.S.E has been successfully deployed on numerous construction sites around the world and, I am told, now has its first gig in London, on a brand new skyscraper.

This article appears in the AT Journal issue 152 Winter 2024 as 'My Schindler City Centre tour: the past, the future, and the R.I.S.E system' and was written by Tim Fraser, Deputy Editor of the AT Journal.

--CIAT

[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings

• Elevators.
• Escalator.
• Firefighting lifts.
• Home elevators.
• Lifting platform.
• Lifts.
• Lifts and Escalators: A Quality Perspective.
• Lifts and Their Special Operating Modes.
• Lifts for office buildings.
• Smart elevators.
• The importance of service lifts.
• The science of lifts.
• Wheelchair platform stairlifts.