Is the Construction Industry Ready to Deploy Robots?
How to drive robot adoption in the construction industry?
Robots are gradually being deployed on construction sites worldwide, with applications ranging from automated bricklaying and 3D printing to site surveys. These robots have demonstrated their ability to perform tasks much faster and with greater accuracy than human workers. However, there are still some challenges to overcome, such as the high cost of investment, the need to re-engineer workflows and processes, and the resistance to change, shares Harsh Pareek, regional sales director for India and SAARC at Trimble Solutions.
As the megatrends of inflation, geopolitical uncertainties, ecological constraints, and the need to house more people more quickly conspire to challenge the industry, the potential benefits of automation in construction appear more vast and undeniable than ever before.
In an industry where greater productivity and increased worker safety top the list of priorities, use of robots and automated construction equipment appears to be a natural fit. Robots have been making inroads in the US$12 trillion global construction industry for some time now, and their applications have been diverse.
From fully automated bricklaying and 3D printing to site surveys, these construction robots have already demonstrated their ability to perform a range of tasks much faster and with greater accuracy than when done by human workers.
In 2018, an automated brick-laying robot from Australian robotics company FBR constructed a three-bedroom house in less than three days. An earlier version of this fully automated robot could lay up to 200 building blocks, roughly equivalent to 2,000 bricks, per hour. It could finish in 48 hours a job that takes human workers four to six weeks to finish. The latest version is claimed to be even faster – it may be able to complete both the internal and external walls of a standard double brick house in just one day.
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Robot Sighting on Project Sites
These and many other robotics innovations are gradually seeing deployment on construction sites around the world. A 2019 survey by consulting firm KPMG found that among the top 20% of construction companies who deemed themselves “technology ready,” 86% use building information modeling (BIM), 72% use drones and 10% use construction robotics.
Another post-pandemic survey of nearly 2,000 small and large construction and associated businesses in Europe, North America and China was more instructive – 81% of the respondents affirmed that they would introduce robots within the next ten years.
The market opportunity for robots in construction is huge enough to draw interest from companies and start-ups around the world. In September 2022, technology giant HP launched a site printing robot that autonomously prints layouts from a digital model on construction site floors. The machine can outline walls, doors and other elements with little intervention. Other start-ups like Dusty Robotics and Rugged Robotics have introduced similar robots that automate construction layouts.
The integration of advanced technologies such as computer vision and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now allowing robots to perform far more sophisticated and complex jobs without human supervision for the first time.
The timing couldn’t have been better – the global construction industry has been besieged with labor shortage since the beginning of the pandemic, while rapidly rising input costs amidst rising inflation and the Ukraine-Russia conflict have further squeezed their margins.
Digitalization Is Diving Robotics Adoption
The construction industry stands apart among its peers as a laggard in technology adoption. This possibly explains why the annual productivity growth in construction has averaged only 1% over the past two decades, as per research done by McKinsey. The manufacturing sector, where robots are already a mainstay on the shop floor, registered a 3.6% annual productivity growth for the same period.
Still, whether the construction industry is ready to embrace and employ robots aggressively is a moot question. First, investments in complete automation can be expensive, and for many construction firms, it can be challenging to allocate resources for robotics while dealing with reduced margins and profitability. Second, their adoption is not as simple as plug and play – a construction company might have to completely redesign or re-engineer their workflows and processes to take full advantage of robots.
For an industry that has for centuries relied on paper models and human direction, such dramatic reengineering of processes for automation can be daunting. Fortunately, there are strong incentives to pursue this path. McKinsey Global Institute estimated that a whopping 5-10x productivity boost is possible for some parts of the construction industry by moving to a manufacturing-style production system.
The global pandemic has proved to be another powerful driver of accelerated digitalization for the construction industry, prompting several large and progressive contractors to shift to BIM and cloud-based collaboration tools for more efficient remote project management.
Once the core processes have been digitalized, deploying robots for the autonomous execution of these processes is a relatively simpler journey. For example, once a fully detailed 3D BIM model of the structure is ready, it can be used to program robots for multiple downstream tasks – from bricklaying to even 3D printing of building blocks.
Robots Are Ready to Build Homes
Several companies are focusing on using robots for 3D printing that can help complete construction projects faster. US-based ICON used its automated construction robot to 3D-print an entire house in 24 hours at US$10,000. Austria-based Printstones recently launched a multi-functional construction robot that is capable of more than 3D concrete printing. It can undertake material transportation, welding, milling, screw driving, plasma cutting, painting, and even bricklaying.
In fact, 3D printing of building structures using robots promises to be a massive opportunity in itself. Dubai, for example, has set a target for 25% of all new buildings to be 3D-printed by 2030. The USA and China are the other two major economies promoting the use of 3D printing technology for construction. Furthermore, with rapid urbanization, the demand for housing and urban infrastructure is only going to increase in the coming years.
See More: Sustainable Construction: Building Sustainability with AI
A Disruptive Shift Is About to Happen
Ultimately, there is a clear business case for investing and deploying robots in all construction activities. The assurance of significantly faster construction at cheaper costs with greater accuracy and safety and reduced errors or wastage is a strong enough incentive. Further, the ongoing research and development work in robotics is expected to bring down the costs of automation, bringing robots within reach of a vast majority of construction firms.
The tipping point in robotic deployment in the construction industry is nigh. It also promises to catalyze the most disruptive shift in how the industry works since the dawn of the industrial revolution.
Do you see robots being used in construction planning and execution more actively in the next two years? Share your thoughts with us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
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