Industry experts share their insights on the profound impact that robots and autonomous systems are having on modern-day construction, in Build in Digital’s latest micro-conference.
The construction industry has a somewhat conservative image when it comes to technology; old-fashioned and traditional, as guest speaker Andrew Knight put it.
Certainly, it’s not an industry that immediately springs to mind when it comes to robotics and automation; the mind’s eye is more likely to invoke images of the technology’s ‘poster-child’, the automotive sector.
Typically, construction’s image is of labour-intensive businesses; burdened by low productivity, and inefficient processes; the story is a familiar one.
Fortunately, things are changing; just as well, really, otherwise Build in Digital‘s latest micro-conference – Robotics and Automation: Towards a Manufactured Workforce – would have proved a rather brief affair. There was, in fact, plenty to talk about.
Knight, global AI, data and tech lead at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), was the first keynote speaker, but he wasn’t putting the boot into the sector, not really; more setting the scene for how it is beginning to catch up.
“I think it is generally a critique of the whole built environment, and the construction industry as well, that it has been slow to adopt new technologies,” he said. Then he lobbed in the “but”.
“We are seeing the beginnings of a revolution that automation in various forms, and digitalisation in various forms, is driving,” he added.
The event’s theme wasn’t simply about speculating on what lies ahead; it was about how the future is being put into practice today, exploring the drivers of innovation, but also the kinds of machines and systems that are being implemented. The over-arching question, of course, is where will such technologies leave the traditional flesh and blood construction professional?
Watch Andrew Knight’s presentation
The drivers pushing the technology are many; urbanisation, cost pressures, issues of sustainability, and building standards around net zero, to name a few. What they are expected to add up to is a solution to some of the those long-standing issues – around skills, productivity and efficiency – that have typically seen construction lag behind other sectors.
“There is the potential here for various robotic and automated systems to transform what is obviously a complex subject, in terms of construction from both a physical perspective, but also project management,” Knight added.
Not just the project management function, either, he noted, but contract management, quantity surveying, and “all the various different functions across the whole realm of the construction process”.
What followed was a high-level, but comprehensive, overview of the technologies that are coming into use, along with their potential impact on the sector. Knight delved into the topic of off-site robots and off-site construction; sensors that can not only monitor safety on site, but measure and map, too.
Going further, he noted how data can be brought together from various platforms to not only provide insights and efficiencies, bit also fuel the construction process itself, through such technologies as 3D printing and an integrated design-manufacturing-construction process.
Knight went on to inject some optimism into a subject that is sometimes fraught with concerns over the technology’s impact on jobs. While he noted there would some impact on the kinds of skills the future workforce will require, he nevertheless saw the future as one of collaboration, not displacement; a ‘blending’ of human and machine working together.
Cyber savvy
For sure, there is a lot to take in, but where Knight provided the overview, his fellow keynote speakers delved into the learnings and practical insights of their own experiences with robotics and automation.
Following on from Knight – and indeed, building on what he had to say – were Eva Magnisali, founder and chief executive of DataForm Lab; Lilian Ho, digital lead and senior BIM manager at AECOM; and Mollie Claypool, co-founder and chief executive of Automated Architecture (AUAR).
Magnisali’s background is in architecture, engineering, and robotic programmes; she helped found DataForm Lab, as she explained in her presentation, to bridge the gap between design and manufacturing, informed by her experiences working in the sector.
Watch Eva Magnisali’s presentation
One of her key themes was simplicity; implicit in her message, then, was a warning for the sector and its tech partners not to be seduced by complexity in its quest for solutions. It’s easily done with tech, whatever the field – industrial or consumer – that we become enamoured by the gadgets and the gizmos, and risk losing sight of what we actually want of them.
“There are many ways to solve a problem,” she said. “But the question for me, is there a problem to begin with? If we have to create a very complex mechanism that has many more problems to stand on its own, rather than a complete and very simple process, is that where we should be focusing our energy?”
She went on to say: “We need to seamlessly link design and manufacturing; that’s where I think automation is transforming the industry. We have the tools to align what happens in the design team and what happens in the manufacturing team.”
At risk of grotesquely over-simplifying Magnisali’s discussion, technology is no ‘magic bullet’ but a set of tools, each of which must be right for the job, but also capable of integrating with the wider toolkit and processes needed to achieve the required goals.
In other words, the industry needs to consider the job and the tools it requires, rather than take up the tools and consider how they can be applied to the job.
As Magnisali pointed out, robot arms were originally made for a very different industry; now they are being brought into construction.
“These are just machines,” she said. “We can’t expect them to do everything. They have limitations; they have constraints.”
Very much like their human counterparts, then, but the technology nevertheless has the capacity to augment our capabilities; speeding up the design-manufacture-construction processes, and empowering people to do so much more.
As Magnisali pointed out, this is very much needed, and what DataForm Lab is all about. The challenge is huge: Globally, some two billion homes must be built over the next 80 years to address a growing population’s housing need. Simply, as it stands today, that target is impossible as the industry lacks the capacity to deliver.
Cracking the technology conundrum is, therefore, essential.
Learning the ways
Inevitably, there’s a learning curve to any new technology, as AECOM’s Ho reminded us. This applies to the industry itself – indeed society as a whole – as much as it does the individual tasked with picking up the tech for immediate use.
Watch Lilian Ho’s presentation
Ho has over 15 years of BIM management in both the private and public sector, where she has been involved in co-ordinating, planning and managing project teams across UK offices. She has also directed BIM implementation strategies on major construction projects, such as for NHS hospitals in Scotland.
So, she’s seen first-hand how the construction industry needs to adopt and learn and adapt, but also how new technologies serve to augment, not replace, the workforce. Inevitably, as she explained, it’s a process that generates confusion at times; it’s the nature of exploration and change.
“We are using a lot of technology at the moment, and [there’s] a lot of upskilling,” she said. “But definitely, [it] is making more efficiencies. The technology is revolutionising our world and the way we build it.”
Ho was quick to point out that the technology isn’t being used to replace humans, but to help them be more efficient in their work. Indeed, she added that more human labour is needed – “to learn the new technology”.
Ho talked about some examples of technology being deployed today, such as robotic arms; field AI, which uses robots to track and measure sites and monitor data in real-time; and others. Again, she emphasised how such systems are about enabling people to do more, improve efficiency, and reduce human error.
“We have a very particular approach,” said AUAR’s Mollie Claypool. ‘Revolutionise’ is a word that tends to find its impact stretched thin through breathless overuse, but when it comes to what this company is undertaking, it seems quite apt to invoke it.
Watch Mollie Claypool’s presentation
AUAR’s mission is to build an “ecosystem of automated micro-factories to deliver beautiful, sustainable, and affordable architecture to millions of people”. So far, so marketing, but the technologies and the techniques they are applying provide a real-world illustration of the potential inherent in integrating design, manufacture, and construction, and in rationalising the processes involved.
Indeed, AUAR is adding another element – mobility. These micro-factories, based around a robot arm, can be packed up and shipped to where they’re needed.
As Claypool explained, it alleviates some of the risk associated with investing in capital-intensive, fixed factories. Fully scalable – from one micro-factory to dozens, even hundreds, depending on the scale of the project – they can be conveniently located close to the actual site of development. It’s a pixelated approach to production, you might say.
In fact, Claypool did say it, albeit in relation to another aspect of the company’s approach. She invoked the ‘pixel’ – the basic building block of visual computer displays – in reference to the basic building blocks manufactured in their factories, and then assembled into finished structures. It’s a core element in the design integration process, too.
“Essentially, we are applying robotics to very old problems,” she said. “And we didn’t need to think of the application of robotics in construction as a labour problem, or as an efficiency problem – but it’s also a design problem.”
Claypool certainly dove right in with her presentation, taking the audience deep into the ‘nuts and bolts’ of automation for manufacturing; there was a lot to digest.
After introducing the robotic arm, which can help build one home in one eight-hour shift, she went on to explore the Revit Plugin – for BIM models – which, again, is proving fast and efficient.
As Claypool explained, AUAR is already building the first robotically assembled homes in the US and Europe, and has already set up three micro-factories, with an ambition to get seven micro-factories up and running by end of 2025.
Clearly, the company – and Claypool and colleagues – are not simply preaching; they’re putting it into practice too. But you can hear the detail in the speakers’ presentations; just click and tune in.
You can find out more about Build in Digital’s forthcoming programme of micro-conferences, as well as catch-up with previous events, here.
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