Robotics and automation as a solution to bridging the UK housing gap (original) (raw)

Barriers to Automation and Robotics in Construction

EPiC Series in Built Environment

Automation and robotics have been widely adopted across many industries, but the construction industry has not achieved the same level of diffusion. Construction is a critical global industry that is challenged to address issues of productivity, safety, quality, and profitability. Automation and robotics have a tremendous potential impact on all these fronts. The objective of this study is to identify barriers to the adoption of automation and robotics in the construction industry as perceived by industry experts and answer the research question: What are the barriers to automation and robotics in construction? We gain understanding through exploratory interviews with industry practitioners and automation and robotics researchers. Semi-structured interviews around construction technologies, implementation and development, perceived barriers, and future trends and opportunities provide insight into those barriers. We expected to find that implementation would be related to company re...

Mapping out research focus for robotics and automation research in construction-related studies

Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology, 2019

PurposeThe adoption of robotics and automation (R&A) within the construction industry has been adjudged as slow, despite the possibility of it reducing the high risk posed on health and safety of humans by the activities of the industry. The call for research and development in this area of technology to improve its adoption in the delivery of construction projects is evident in past studies. Thus, this paper aims to conduct a review of R&A in construction-related fields with a view to revealing the area of focus of past studies.Design/methodology/approachA bibliometric approach was adopted for this study, and data used were gathered from the Scopus database. Keywords such as “robotics”, “automation” and “construction” were used to extract papers from the database. VOSviewer was used to prepare a co-authorship and co-occurrence map based on the bibliographic data gathered.FindingsThe findings revealed that focus is placed on construction automation, industrial robots and application...

Preparedness of the Indian Construction Industry to Adapt to Robotics and Automation

IOSR Journals , 2019

The Indian construction sector plays a key role in India’s economic development and nation-building through infrastructure projects and facilities and real estate development. Unlike the western world which is seeing an increasing utilization of robotics and automation in construction (RAC) India lags in the use of robotics and automation in construction. The objective of this research was to study the current awareness of robotics and automation in Indian construction industry and to determine the acceptability, and perception of adaptability and feasibility of robotics and automation in the construction industry. Primary data collected from 398 construction industry project engineers through a structured questionnaire was used to test the results through factor analysis and hypotheses testing. The findings reveal that the general perception is that robotics and automation are considered to be the same by the practicing construction industry professionals and that RAC is considered suitable for a developing country like India and that there is awareness about the benefits of adaptability and usage of robots in construction but at the same time several resistance factors emerge and these barriers will have to be overcome for successful adaption of RAC in India.

Willingness to Adopt Robotics and Construction Automation in the South African Construction Industry

Proceedings of the International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management, 2018

Automation in construction has shown a great advantage in the construction industry for execution of different types of work in construction in terms of increasing production, cost reduction, resolving labour issue and delivering project on time. Problem faced in construction had been studied and inventors designed new robotics and construction automation to mitigate those problems. This study focused on assessing the level of willingness to adopt robotics and construction automation in South Africa. Literatures were reviewed and with the findings obtained from the administered questionnaire, the objective of the study was achieved. Respondents were chosen from the population of construction professional and retrieved data was analysed. The study indicated that construction professionals are willing to adopt robotics and construction automation. Although reviewed literatures showed there are barriers to the adoption of Robotics and Construction Automation. The study concluded that construction automation and robotics would have positive effects on the delivery of the construction project by increasing quality of the construction product, enhancing supervision, improving working conditions, cost effectiveness and it will also reduce construction accidents if adopted. It was recommended that government provide subsidies to encourage construction professionals in getting necessary technology for the adoption of robotics and construction automation.