Five ways advanced robots are solving construction industry challenges

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Five ways advanced robots are solving construction industry challenges

Five ways advanced robots are solving construction industry challenges

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Oct 03,24

From cobots to computer vision, robotics professionals and construction managers have forged a lifelong bond. Advanced construction robotics are the single best contributor to industrial progress in the modern era, says Emily Newton.

Five ways advanced robots are solving construction industry challenges

The construction sector has been adopting robotics for a long time, as competitive advantages and safety benefits rely on their automation and expanded functionalities. Advanced construction robotics piques the curiosity of sector professionals as they experiment with stretching their capabilities.

Obstacles still litter construction, but the robotic advent harbors immense promise in making those challenges obsolete. How could a singular integration yield industry-breaking solutions?

1. Improved safety measures

A prominent construction industry challenge is safety, considering construction workers endured 21,400 nonfatal incidents and injuries in 2020. Advanced construction robotics abate the most concerning and recurring incidents, including:

Slips and falls
Electrocution
Fires and explosions
Demolition incidents
Ground collapse
Physical overexertion
Crane and forklift injuries

Robots lift heavy materials, interact with hazardous objects, and keep humans from being caught between or struck by machinery. Construction firms must encourage teleoperation as much as possible to keep physical strains to a minimum and safeguards higher.

2. Enhanced efficiency and productivity

Construction projects often face unexpected delays outside of the firm’s control. Workers make unexpected mistakes or relay communication inappropriately. Robots eliminate human error and are not impacted by fatigue, immediately boosting the speed at which projects reach completion. Consider a worker’s ease of applying shotcrete with robots instead of a conventional hose.

A construction robot could do everything from docking up a blueprint to connecting with AI to produce a digital twin to lift beams for perfect placement on-site. Its versatility pairs with higher accuracy and pixel-perfect precision, from bricklaying with end effectors to laser-cutting with computer vision.

Smart programming amplifies their rapidity and efficiency by executing tasks in the most optimized way. Depending on integrations with simultaneous localization and mapping or Internet of Things devices, robots can perform swift data analysis of a project site with sensors to expedite risk management, identify concerns, reduce project duration and solidify decision-making.

3. Reduction in construction costs

Shortening timetables and reducing human error are apparent financial sinks, but how do robots cure the financial woes hampering construction? Research reports robots cut timelines by 2.3 times, eliminated over 50% of reworks and reduced costs by at least 13 percent. Though upfront expenses may be notable, investments into remote-operated devices, software and autonomous robots pay for themselves in time.

Here are other price reductions workers will see by employing advanced construction robotics:

Trash disposal fees
Fewer wasted materials
Reduced compliance costs
Fewer worker's compensation claims

4. Improved construction quality

Explore a case study with Tessa Lau, CEO of Dusty Robotics. Its autonomous robot — the FieldPrinter — sought to improve the overall quality of construction projects. It automatically scopes an area and generates a digital model to inform workers of the layout of upcoming projects without wasting time with manual intervention. It improved modeling quality while boosting collaborative efforts because of shared access to digital files and CAD integrability.

This is one example of how robots bolster construction quality. Structures are sturdier because of more precise assembly and aesthetic aspects like painting are more evenly distributed. Plus, robots can know proprietary and regulatory quality control recommendations and compliance frameworks to remain on top of industry-leading standards.

5. Embracing human-robot interaction

The worker shortage has been a construction industry challenge since before the COVID-19 pandemic when it came to publicized common knowledge. Cobots mitigate this challenge by supplementing the workforce and providing tenured professionals the chance to upskill into a new workflow.

Every industry will have blended staff with robots, AI and humans. Now is the best time to acclimate to these changes while learning to oversee and interact with them. It will enhance a construction firm’s capabilities and expedite operations like assembly and drafting.

Computer scientist Elena Fersman states AI will be essential to advancing cobots for sectors like construction. “When brain signals can be read with high precision and transferred to the robots, we will be able to collaborate with them in a completely new way.”

Construction industry challenges, solved

From cobots to computer vision, robotics professionals and construction managers have forged a lifelong bond. They rely on each other to push boundaries, generate results and set standards that make thought leaders wonder why these challenges ever hindered construction in the first place.

Advanced construction robotics are the single best contributor to industrial progress in the modern era. Corporations embracing this mindset unlock limitless scaling and resilience as they more profoundly protect their workers and assets.

About the author:

Emily Newton is a tech and industrial journalist and the Editor-in-Chief of Revolutionized magazine. Subscribe to the Revolutionized newsletter for more content from Emily.

Image Courtesy: www.Freepik.com