If you look around, you may believe robots are already commonplace, what with self-driving cars, self-cooking appliances, house maintenance, security, and surveillance robots. We have only just begun to explore the potential of robotics. Consequently, it’s not shocking that, although being widely discussed, robotics have yet to make significant inroads in the building industry.
Prefabrication is a great area where robotics will first acquire importance, filling production duties in the factory before being translated to field activities due to the ease with which they can be applied within regulated surroundings.
Prefabrication is a building method whereby parts are built off-site and then brought to the job site for final assembly. Off-site construction, if done properly, can reduce or even eliminate numerous inefficiencies seen on a regular building site.
Modular and prefabricated are the two most common types of pre-fabrication. Entire rooms can be constructed off-site with modular building and then installed at the construction site.
When it comes to prefabrication, the focus is on having parts made in a factory and then putting them together at the construction site.
However, if 2020 demonstrated anything, it is that we are all more receptive to realistic applications of robotic technology, and 2021 may be the year to make that happen. Both the benefits and drawbacks of using robots in the building are common knowledge at this point. In this article, we will examine the rapidly developing field of construction robots and speculate on the influence that our autonomous friends will have on the sector in 2019.
The future of robots
McKinsey has released a paper claiming that 47% of building tasks can be automated at present. Yet, the greatest opportunities for automation improvements lie in the very area where robotics struggles the most: in uncontrolled settings.
Each building job serves as a prototype, unlike any other product. Location, resources, purpose, usefulness, and budget all play a role in architectural plan creation. Standardizing construction projects is a challenging task. Therefore, robotics can’t be employed solely to aid in building if it’s going to be effective. They must be built in to facilitate visibility, proactively detect problems, monitor development, and more.
According to McKinsey’s projections, it will be decades before we see the full impact of automation on our existing work practices. However, the payoff, in the long run, justifies the effort. Here are a few examples of fields that have already been significantly altered by robotics and automated processes:
One of the most important industries in the world economy is the building trade. However, the construction industry has been notoriously sluggish to adopt digital and automation technologies, making it one of the last to fully embrace robotics. Many things, including the price of labour and a lack of forethought in the processes, contribute to this.
- Addressing the current scarcity of skilled workers
Despite the constant worry that technology will lead to widespread joblessness, the building industry needs as much human labour as possible. Robotics is essential to alleviating the strain brought on by the construction industry’s skills deficit. Simply put, the probability of having an abundance of human labour is significantly lower than having a shortage, which is why widespread use of automation is necessary.
- Lessening the amount of work-related injuries
Robots and remote control have long been an attractive alternative to dangerous manual labour. We can observe this phenomenon in:
Functionality from afar
Toilsome labour
Routine work
More money will be put into developing robotics in fields where they can have the greatest impact on human safety.
- Saving money on overheads and inefficiency
Robots not only guarantee efficacy, but they also have a higher rate of precision. They never get tired or bored. They are capable of performing routine jobs that humans might find boring.
They may maintain a high standard of quality throughout their labour, which can greatly increase productivity on a building site.
Prefabrication is a building method whereby parts are built off-site and then brought to the job site for final assembly. Off-site construction, if done properly, can reduce or even eliminate numerous inefficiencies seen on a regular building site.
Modular and prefabricated are the two most common types of pre-fabrication.
Entire rooms can be constructed off-site with modular building and then installed at the construction site.
When it comes to prefabrication, the focus is on having parts made in a factory and then putting them together at the construction site.
Prefabrication is a great area where robotics will first acquire importance, filling production duties in the factory before being translated to field activities due to the ease with which they can be applied within regulated surroundings. Therefore, in the years to come, automation would be seemingly indispensable.
