Welcome to Robotics & Intelligent Construction Automation Lab
-R I C A L-

The Robotics & Intelligent Construction Automation Lab is directed by Dr. Yong K. ChoProfessor of the School of Civil and Environmental Enginering at Georgia Institute of Technology.

The lab is leading the development of a new paradigm in these research areas by challenging the current understanding of science/engineering technologies in real-world automated and robotic field operations. Among the challenges the lab is investigating are robotizing and automating several critical field tasks for disaster relief, construction operations & management, infrastructure maintenance, and worker’s health, safety, and productivity improvement.

Research Project

Smart & Connected construction
Automation & Robotics
2D/3D semantic data understanding
Others

Our RICAL Team

Director

Yong K. Cho, Ph.D.
Professor
Director of Robotics & Intelligent Construction Automation Lab
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
Associate Editor, Automation in Construction
Associate Editor, ASCE Computing in Civil Engineering
Office: Mason 4140B
Phone: +01-404-385-2038
E-mail: yong.cho at ce.gatech.edu
Curriculum Vitae
Profile at CEE website

Lab members

Seongyong Kim

CEE Ph.D. Student
Dissertation topic: TBD
E-mail: skim3310@gatech.edu
Website: syoi92.github.io

Andrew Yarovoi

Ph.D. student at Robotics Institute
Dissertation topic: TBD
E-mail: ayarovoi3@gatech.edu

YeSeul Kim

CEE Ph.D. Student
Dissertation topic: TBD
E-mail: leslieyskim@gatech.edu

Alumni & Friends

Visiting Scholars

Junsuk Kang, Ph.D. (2023-2024)

Associate Professor, Dept. of Landscape Architecture and Rural Systems Engineering, Seoul National Univ., Korea
E-mail: junkang@snu.ac.kr
Website:https://snuge.modoo.at/

Young-min Jin (2022-2023)

Deputy Director, Advanced Logistics Division, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Korea
E-mail: forcivil@korea.kr

Minchoul Park, Ph.D. (2022-2023)

Associate Professor, Dept. of Railroad Management and Logistics, Korea National Univ. of Transportation, Korea
E-mail: minchoul@ut.ac.kr

Dooil Kim, Ph.D. (2020-2021)

Associate Professor, Dept. of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Dankook Univ., Korea
GT Alumni (2007, Ph.D.)
E-mail: dikim21@dankook.ac.kr

Man-Woo Park, Ph.D. (2019-2020)

Associate Professor, Dept. of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Myongji Univ., Korea
GT Alumni (2012, Ph.D.)
E-mail: mwpark@mju.ac.kr

ByungJik Son, Ph.D. (2017-2018)

Professor, Dept. of International Civil & Plant Engineering, Konyang Univ., Korea
E-mail: strustar@konyang.ac.kr

Hoon Song, Ph.D. (2017-2018)

Energy & Environmental Division, Eco Composite Materials Team leader, Korea Institute of Ceramic Engineering and Technology (KICET), Korea
GT Alumni (2007, Ph.D.)
E-mail: songhun@kicet.re.kr

Postdocs

Jisoo Park, Ph.D.

Major: Civi Engineering, Georgia Tech (Dec 2020)
Current position: Assistant Professor, Dept. of Built Environment, Indiana State University
E-mail: jisoo.park@indstate.edu Website:youngbrain85.github.io/

Ph.D.

Kinam Kim

Graduation Date: May 2022
Major: Civil Engineering, Georgia Tech
Current position: Assistant Professor, Dept. of Construction Management, University of Houston
E-mail: kkim48@central.uh.edu
Website: ki-nam.github.io

Jingdao Chen

Graduation Date: May 2021
Major: Robotics, Georgia Tech
Current position: Assistant Professor, Mississippi State University
E-mail:chenjingdao@cse.msstate.edu

Pileun Kim

Graduation Date: Dec 2020
Major: Civil Engineering, Georgia Tech
Current position: Assistant Professor, Korea Aerospace University
E-mail:

JeeWoong(Jay) Park, Ph.D.

Graduation Date: May 2017
Major: Civil Engineering, Georgia Techy
Current position: Assistant Professor, Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas
E-mail: jee.park@unlv.edu

Yihai Fang, Ph.D.

Graduation Date: Dec 2016
Major: Civil Engineering, Georgia Tech
Current position: Assistant Professor, Monash University in Australia
E-mail: Yihai.Fang@monash.edu

Kyungki Kim, Ph.D.

Graduation Date: May 2016
Major: Civil Engineering, Georgia Tech
Current position: Assistant Professor, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
E-mail: kkim13@unl.edu

Chao Wang, Ph.D.

Graduation Date: July 2014
Major: Civil Engineering, Georgia Tech
Current position: Associate Professor, Louisiana State University
E-mail: chaowang@lsu.edu

Eric Marks, Ph.D (co-advised)

Graduation Date: May 2014
Major: Civil Engineering, Georgia Tech
Current position:Professor of Practice, Georgia Institute of Technology
E-mail: eric.marks@ce.gatech.edu

Keke Zheng, Ph.D.(co-advised)

Graduation Date: May 2013
Major: Architectural Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Current position: Research Engineering Associate, Institute of Building Environment and Energy Efficiency,
China Academy of Building Research No. 30 East Beisanhuan, Beijing, China 100013
Email:  kzheng01@foxmail.com

Daihong Yu, Ph.D.(co-advised)

Graduation Date: Dec. 2012
Major: Architectural Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Master

Shiqin Zeng

MS CEE MS Student
Graduation Date: May 2020
E-mail: zsq123@gatech.edu

Carter Price

M.S. Student at Mechanical Engineering/Computer Science
Graduation Date: May 2020
E-mail: lprice8@gatech.edu

Jitae Kim

CS MS Student
Graduation Date:2019
E-mail: jkim3181@gatech.edu

Yuhui Zhou, MS

CEE MS Student
Graduation Date: Dec. 2018
E-mail: zhouyuhui@gatech.edu

Beomgu Jung, MS

Graduation Date: May 2018
Major: Civil Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
Current position: DON Construction (https://donconstructioncorp.com/), Closter, NJ, 07624
E-mail: tigernine1982@gmail.com

Willy Suryanto, MS

Graduation date: May 2015
Major: Civil Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
Research topic: Mobile Assets Tracking

Mengmeng Gai, MS

Major: Construction Management, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Thesis: Automatic Object Recognition and Registration of Dynamic Heavy Equipment Using a Hybrid LADAR System

Ziqing Zhuang, MS

Major: Construction Management, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Thesis: Effectiveness study of Non-Nuclear Gauge for Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) Pavement Construction

Koudous Kabassi, MS, MBA

Major: Construction Management, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Thesis: Effectiveness Study on Temporary Pavement Marking Removals Methods
Current position: Quality Engineer at Kiewit Construction Southwest Division

Thaddaeus Bode, M.S., MBA

Major: Construction Management, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Thesis: An Analysis of The Impacts of Temperature Segregation on Hot Mix Asphalt Pavements and The Variables That Contribute to It
Current position: Sustainability Engineer at Omaha Public Power District

Diego Martinez, MS

Major: Computer Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Thesis: Mobile Robot Path Plannning for Construction Indoor Asset Tracking
Current position: Telecom Design Engineer at Qualcomm

Heejung Im, MS

Major: Management Information System, University of Nebraska at Omaha
Current position: Telecom specialist at Samsung Telecommunications of America

Sultan Alakar, MS

Major: Civil Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Thesis: Energy Simulation for Zero Net Energy Homes

Undergraduate students

Mark Kahoush

Major in Computer Science
at Georgia Tech
E-mail: mkahoush3@gatech.edu

Eumin Hong

Major in Computer Science & Mathematics
at Columbia University
E-mail: eh2890@columbia.edu

NEWS

04-20-2017
Pileun and Jingdao recieved the best paper award at ISARC 2017 in Taipei Taiwan. Congratulations!
04-20-2017
JeeWoong(Jay) Park was appointed as Assistant Professor at Univ. of Nevada, Las vegas. Congratulations!
06-07-2016
KyungkI Kim got a faculty position at University of Houston. Congratulations!
2016
Pileun and Jingdao recieved the best paper award at ISARC 2016 in Auburn AL.
August 2015
Chao Wang got an assistant professor position at LSU. Congratulations!
05-20-2015
Dr. Cho and Yihai Fang gave research seminars and technology demonstrations at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China
11-01-2013
New Student Welcome:
Welcome Mr. Jee Woong Park to join RICAL as a Ph.D. Student. Mr. Jee Woong Park graduated from Stanford University with M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering.
08-21-2013
Welcome back to Yong-Kwon Cho, MSCE '97
A big “welcome back” goes out to Dr. Yong-Kwon Cho, MSCE ’97, who is returning to CEE as an associate professor this fall. Cho comes to Georgia Tech most recently from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, where he taught civil engineering after earning his doctorate at the University of Texas. A 2011 recipient of the NSF Early Career Award, his research interests include building energy, construction automation, and transportation. He is leading the development of a new paradigm in these research areas by challenging the current understanding of science/engineering technologies in construction and sustainable built environments. Among the challenges he is investigating are robotizing several critical construction tasks; and developing sustainable energy improvement methods for buildings.
08-21-2013
RICAL Relocation:
Robotics and Intelligent Construction Automation Lab has officially relocated to GaTech Bunger Henry Building Room 214 from University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Lab is currently under construction.
08-11-2013
Best Paper Award:
Congratulations to Dr. Cho and Mengmeng Gai for their paper "Automatic object recognition of dyanmic construction equipment from a 3D point cloud" being selected as recipient of the best paper award of the 2013 ISARC conference in Montreal, Candata.
06-25-2013
Conference Presentation:
Dr. Cho gave a presentation about our accpted paper "Real-time 3D visualization of multiple heavy construction equipment operations using LADAR" in the 2013 ASCE International Workshop on Computing in Civil Engineering at the University of Southern California, LA, California.


Opening Positions

Graduate Research Assistant positions with full financial support are available in Spring or Fall in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at GaTech. Visiting Ph.D. students are welcomed as well.
The admitted students will pursue Ph.D. degree in Civil Engineering with a special focus on construction engineering. The students are expected to work with Dr. Cho in the general field of data sensing, 3D LADAR control for robotic construction operation, Rapid 3D Built Environment Modeling, Building Information Modeling, and UAV. The selected students will be able to involve in multiple external projects funded by NSF, State DOT, TRB, and private sector.

Ph.D. in Robotics Instiute: Students admitted to other engineering programs at Georgia Tech (Mechanincal engineering, interactive computing, electrical and computer engineering ) can also join the RICAL group under Dr. Cho's supervision. See more details about the Ph.D. program in Robotics Institute at http://robotics.gatech.edu/education/phd. Contact Dr. Cho if you are interested in pursuing Ph.D. study at the Robotics Institute.

Minimum Requirements:
1) B.S. in engineering or related fields, other general admission requirements of GaTech please refer this link.
2) Proficient with one of the following programming languages: (visual) C++, Java, C, C#, python
3) Good oral / writing skills in English and good communication skill.

Desirable Qualifications:
1) M.S. in Engineering or related fields.
2) Tier 1 journal paper publication(s).
3) Experiences related to one or more of the following areas:

  • Electronic Design & Prototyping, Custom Firmware and Board (PCB) Design
  • Hardware system design(Mechanical Engineering Majors)
  • Mobile robot: design & prototyping, autonomous navigation, path planning, IMU, SLAM (ME, EE, or CS majors)
  • UAV: design & prototyping, indoor/outdoor navigation, data collection, IMU
  • IoT, cloud computing

Please send your latest CV to Dr. Cho or lab members if you are interested in joining our research group.