Reconsidering Construction Robotics
Date Posted: December 31, 2019
Posted In: Ideas, Workforce,
From Building Design+Construction: Fact: There were 379,000 unfilled construction jobs in August, based on preliminary estimates released in October by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Fact: The majority of nonresidential construction projects come in over budget and late, sometimes wildly so.
After decades when experts predicted that robots would become more prevalent on construction sites, it would appear that the industry has finally reached that point where necessity, aspiration, and investment are colliding.
In Illinois, two general contractors—Clark Construction Group and Blinderman Construction—are using robots provided by New York–based manufacturer Construction Robotics that are helping crews lay brick and hoist 32-inch foundation blocks faster and more efficiently for a $52 million, 166,000-sf barracks.
Scott Peters, Construction Robotics’ cofounder and CEO, says his company’s machines, dubbed MULE and SAM, have installed more than one million sf of walls. Peters also notes that more GCs and subcontractors are incorporating robots into the early planning stages of their projects.
Until recently, construction robotics has been mostly an academic exercise, with institutions such as the University of Southern California, MIT’s Media Lab, and Carnegie Mellon leading the charge. And what robots could perform was limited to a handful of tasks—rapid bricklaying, large-scale 3D printing for structures, and rebar tying.
The attraction of robots lies in their promise of lower operating costs, improved efficiency for repeatable tasks, on-demand and custom development (such as additive manufacturing and prefabrication), and better jobsite logistics and management.