Barriers to Automation and Robotics in Construction

Abstract

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 revenue and openness to technology as it is in countries like South Korea and Japan. We found that barriers could be categorized into culture, teams, and technical aspects. Our research contributes to the body of knowledge by addressing the topic beyond just technical aspects providing the perspective of practitioners and researchers who are engaged in innovation. The research indicates that the construction industry, educators, and owners should do more to facilitate the adoption of automation and robotics and address the barriers which are more cultural than technical.

PLS-SEM assessment of the impediments of robotics and automation deployment for effective construction health and safety

“…The findings revealed that deployment of R&A for safer construction worksites in South Africa is impeded by four major groups of industry, technology, human and costrelated factors. These grouped factors are consistent with existing literature that have grouped the barriers to the use of R&A and related technologies in both developed and developing countries worldwide (Delgado et al, 2019;Huang et al, 2021;Oke et al, 2021;Trujillo and Holt, 2020). However, while Oke et al (2021) submitted that cost and technologyrelated issues are the major barriers to the use of robotics in the construction industry in Nigeria, this current study found that the barriers exceed these two groups to include industry and human-related factors.…”

“…Several studies have attempted to unearth these factors and categorise them based on their severity for clarity. For instance, in the USA, Trujillo and Holt (2020) categorised the barriers to using robotics into three main groups, namely, cultural, technical and teams' issues. It was noted that while literature has placed focus on the technical aspect of this technology as key deterrents to its usage, the culture at the organisational level and the team needed to handle this technology are key factors to consider.…”

“…To this end, studies on R&A systems in the construction industry of both developed and developing countries have continued to emerge. Some of these studies have explored the implementation (Akinradewo et al, 2018;Strukov a and Líška, 2013), the barriers to its implementation (Delgado et al, 2019;Oke et al, 2021;Trujillo and Holt, 2020), its overarching impact on the industry (Akinradewo et al, 2021;Cropp, 2021), the trends in R&A advancement (Balaguer and Abderrahim, 2008;Pan and Pan, 2020; PLS-SEM assessment Son et al, 2010) and its adoption for solving specific industry-related issues (Cai et al, 2018;Jung et al, 2013).…”

Robotics and automation for sustainable construction: microscoping the barriers to implementation

“…Despite the presence of these aforementioned studies on the knowledge of robotics and automation systems in the construction industry, very few have sought to identify and evaluate the barriers hindering the adoption of robotics and automation systems in the construction industry. Existing studies have been conducted in European countries (Delgado et al, 2019), United States of America (RECM et al, 2020;Pradhananga et al, 2021), Switzerland (Chen et al, 2018), Malaysia (Kamaruddin et al, 2016;Yahya et al, 2019), Pakistan (Imtiaz et al, 2021), India (Mistri and Rathod, 2015) and South Africa (Aghimien et al, 2022). Despite the presence of these studies, very few have been conducted in the Nigerian construction industry, a gap that this study seeks to fill.…”

“Imagine and make”: teaching construction robotics for higher education students

“…Although some studies expect a significant increase in the use of robots in construction projects in the next few years (Liang et al 2020 ), and despite the presence of some cases where robots have been used in construction sites since the 1980s (Forcael et al 2020 ), robotics face several barriers to be normalized in the construction industry. In addition to the impact of the cost and time-related barriers, the lack of sufficient knowledge about new managerial principles and technological advances, lack of skilled team, resistance to change and to adopt new practices and technologies by managers and employees, and poor leadership are among the most affecting factors to adopt construction 4.0 and robotics in the construction industry (Al balkhy et al 2021 ; Albalkhy and Sweis 2020 ; Trujillo and Holt 2020 ; Mahbub 2015 ; Davila Delgado et al 2019 ; Buchli et al 2018 ; Carra et al 2018 ).…”