Robotics technology transforms current construction industry

Researchers at Purdue Polytechnic Institute are currently trying to lay the foundation for robotics technology in construction industry.

Nowadays, construction industry does not include high technology robotics automation but researchers believe that it is time to do so. Robots are excellent at repetitive tasks in a controlled environment. Thus, construction sites are the primary obstacle to robotic technology as tasks are extremely difficult to automate. Therefore, this technology must be able to adapt to these circumstances in order to be sustainable.

Assistant Professor in the School of Construction Management Technology, Jiansong Zhang who is currently occupied with the automation of construction procedures using robotics, states: "As a construction researcher, I acknowledge our industry has lagged behind other industries such as manufacturing and agriculture in adopting and developing technologies. In recent years, we've been really trying to catch up. We've developed new technology in our domain to help with productivity, safety, quality and cost of the products."

Researchers are continually evolving the development of brick-laying robots and robotic systems that lay out the rebar for concrete.

Professor Zhang is now focusing on including artificial intelligence in the early stages of construction planning. His purpose is to develop algorithms that will examine the design simulation of a building and compare it to the regulation codes of the region. Moreover, if violations are found, the system can alter the design in order to be corrected. "The system can perform the reasoning thousands of times faster than a human, even if I was using an average laptop rather than a supercomputer. The amount of time that can be saved and improvements made can vary from phase to phase and application to application and person to person in a project," Professor said.