Robotics in Construction

Automation and robotics have helped manufacturing, retail, and agriculture industries increase productivity by 1,500% since 1945 (McKinsey 2017). In contrast, however, construction productivity has remained relatively stagnant during the same time period. For the robotics industry, construction presents potential use cases and unique applications that can utilize a variety of evolving technologies, from drones, ground robotics, teleoperation, machine vision, additive manufacturing, and assistive robotics. Automation has been implemented in other industries to solve challenges associated with labor productivity, material waste, quality control, and so on—but why not construction? This panel will bring together representatives from the architecture, engineering, and construction industry with technology and thought leaders from the robotics community to develop a collective understanding of the problems and opportunities, and discuss how to take the next steps.