Construction Robotics

It is well known that construction is wasteful and inefficient. It is the world’s largest consumer of raw materials, using around 50% of global steel production. It is one of the largest sectors in the world economy, with around $10 trillion being spent on construction-related goods and services annually. However, the industry’s productivity has flat-lined over the past 50 years whilst other manufacturing industries have almost doubled. This is not surprising given that there has been little to no development in on-site construction tools. It is, though, unfair to say there has been no technological advancement: within the design and planning stages, the software has taken great strides, with BIM, in particular, playing an important role. This brings us to the root of the problem, which is that whilst we are designing digitally, we are still constructing manually. At Scaled Robotics we believe this disconnect between the digital model and the physical world is what leads to many of the inefficiencies that plague the industry. A basic example of that disconnection is that currently, site managers have no quick and accurate tool to compare the built structure to the digital model. They rely either on manual spot checks–which are slow, labour-intensive, and not fully representative–or expensive laser scanners, which though more accurate are extremely slow. They also only produce raw data and not actionable information for site management. At Scaled Robotics we believe that the development of new construction tools such as robotics will be at the forefront of solving these industry problems. Through this workshop, we will explore a holistic road map for moving from no robots in construction to fully automated construction sites with totally new manufacturing processes, focusing on both technological milestones and industry requirements to make this a reality. Referencing current state of the art research, solutions being deployed today by Scaled Robotics on construction sites around Europe and how that connects to Forge and the larger AEC software ecosystem. The workshop will be given from the perspective of Stuart Maggs, CEO and Co-Founder of Scaled Robotics, a construction robotics startup developing and deploying robots on real construction sites today. Lifting the lid on the technological and industry challenges by recounting the nitty-gritty trials and tribulations faced trying to build these new tools.