As cities continue to expand and infrastructure projects grow more ambitious, the construction sector is facing a crippling problem: There aren’t enough workers.
The U.S. alone will need to attract around half a million construction workers in 2025 to meet anticipated demand for construction services, according to the trade association Associated Builders and Contractors. In fact, the construction industry in the United States has faced a significant shortage since the Great Recession of 2008 when it lost 30% of its workforce.In response, several states have launched apprenticeships and beefed up community college programs to attract people to skilled trade occupations. Others have been busy building another kind of workforce: construction robots.
Over the past decade, dozens of construction robots have cropped up on the market. Hilti Jaibot can drill on ceilings. Hadrian X can lay bricks. Okibo can plaster and paint walls. These construction robots weren’t developed to replace humans—rather to perform tasks that are considered dangerous or repetitive.The hurdle to broader adoption so far has been that many of these robots can only perform a limited number of very specific tasks. But that could soon change: Researchers at the Italian Institute of Technology have designed what they claim to be the world’s most modular construction robot, referring to the customizability of its component parts.
Dubbed “Concert,” it can perform a wide array of tasks, including drilling, spraying insulation, sanding, and transporting 400-pound payloads.Named for its ability to be “composed” or assembled for different scenarios,
Concert consists of a mobile base and a modular arm that looks a bit like a Mars rover. The base is equipped with wheels that can be changed to fit the terrain, while the robotic arm can be outfitted with various tools depending on the task to be performed. Researchers tested Concert in Poland, and hope it will be available to the market within the next two to three years.One of the biggest challenges is that construction sites are complex, unpredictable, and decentralized. Unlike, say, a manufacturing facility, where operations tend to be fixed, construction sites can vary wildly from one to the next. “This makes it much more challenging for the robot,” says Tsagarakis, noting that for a robot to be useful and efficient at a construction site, it must be able to adapt and have some degree of autonomy.My Thoughts 💭
My biggest issue with articles like this is the absence of cost and run time. While I know it is still on concept phase, a robot like this only makes sense if it can increase productivity at a reasonable cost. I am highly skeptical it can plus sophisticated technology like this is expensive to maintain and repair. It’s cool science project but having one of these around a project site seems to provide marginal benefit.