Robotics and Construction

For most people, integrated robotics is a far off science-fiction fantasy that you see on screen and read in books.  When people mention the future, it always involves some type of robotic automation that makes both dangerous labor and repetitive tasks easier.  But what if I told you that in the construction industry, that future is now – and it’s about to become one of the leading industries that adopts and develops robotics on an impressive scale.  Need work to be done faster, cheaper, and with greater precision?  Robots just might be your answer.

Automation is the Name of the Game

Whether you are marketing to your database of contacts or developing adaptive solar facades for your building, automation is the process of using machine technology to create harmony where there once was chaos.  Automation is the way forward in the future in the construction world, despite a large number of professionals belly-aching that it will eventually consume their job.

Both commercial and residential construction projects that have adopted early rounds of robotic automation are reporting reductions in overall costs, increased building speed, increased workplace safety, fewer injuries and insurance claims, and an a remarkable bump in sustainable operations that don’t damage the environment.

Take 3D printing for example – what was once a novelty item for hobbyists and small one-off fabricators is now a thriving construction vertical in places like China.  Engineers at WinSun have pioneered a 3D printing and automation technology that can build houses and apartment buildings from recycled construction composite materials including concrete, fiberglass, sand, and a unique “ink” hardening agent.

With this automated construction method, sustainability is the key.  Walls and other structural elements are fabricated off-site to keep costs down.  The composite “ink” that forms the houses and apartment buildings is flexible, self-insulating, and resistant to strong earthquakes.  According to the engineers at WinSun, these construction methods saved 60% of the materials needed to construct a home, and drastically reduced the amount of labor needed to complete a project.

Build Them Up, Break Them Down

So between 3D printing robots and the brick-laying robots that we featured previously from Fastbrick Robotics, you’re probably thinking that robots are good for traditional construction projects.  But did you know that demolition robots have been in use  in construction for nearly a decade already?

International firms like Brokk and Husqvarna produce remote-controlled robots that specialize in demolition – they can break down walls, turn concrete into dust, and cut straight through rebar and steel.  These robots are perfect for end-of-life demolition projects where buildings are on their last leg and it would be dangerous to send in a live crew.  The interesting thing about these robots is that they have “limbs” where you can attach various tools and setups to customize the demolition process based on the materials and structure at hand.

Programmable Progress

Quite possibly the most mind-blowing development in construction robotics is a programmable “group intelligence” feature that was developed by the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.  These programmable robots form an autonomous network that doesn’t need a boss or commander – each individual robot knows what it is doing, knows what the team is doing, and knows how to work together with the other robots to complete tasks.

These bots were designed by the Harvard teams to mimic the way termite colonies communicate – which is a process called stigmergy.  This process channels individual communication up to a group by modifying or sensing the shared local environment.  With this framework in place, each robot mimics the activities of the others to complete tasks in a procedural fashion.  If one robot breaks down, tasks can still be completed without delaying project progress.  These robots even know to how to repair themselves when an asset goes offline…talk about machine intelligence.

All in all, the robots you dreamed about are now here as a reality in the construction world.  Whether you like them or not, robotic integration and automation is the way forward in dangerous job verticals and industries like construction.

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