CoBuilt 4.0: Investigating the potential of collaborative robotics for subject matter experts

Abstract

Human-robot interactions can offer alternatives and new pathways for construction industries, industrial growth and skilled labour, particularly in a context of industry 4.0. This research investigates the potential of collaborative robots (CoBots) for the construction industry and subject matter experts; by surveying industry requirements and assessments of CoBot acceptance; by investing processes and sequences of work protocols for standard architecture robots; and by exploring motion capture and tracking systems for a collaborative framework between human and robot co-workers. The research investigates CoBots as a labour and collaborative resource for construction processes that require precision, adaptability and variability. Thus, this paper reports on a joint industry, government and academic research investigation in an Australian construction context. In section 1, we introduce background data to architecture robotics in the context of construction industries and reports on three sections. Section 2 reports on current industry applications and survey results from industry and trade feedback for the adoption of robots specifically to task complexity, perceived safety, and risk awareness. Section 3, as a result of research conducted in Section 2, introduces a pilot study for carpentry task sequences with capture of computable actions. Section 4 provides a discussion of results and preliminary findings. Section 5 concludes with an outlook on how the capture of computable actions provide the foundation to future research for capturing motion and machine learning.

Research focus for construction robotics and human-robot teams towards resilience in construction: scientometric review

“…However, this has raised ergonomics and human factors issues such as trust, communication, perception and social issues on implications on livelihood and human safety. Nagatani et al (2021) examined innovative technologies for infrastructure construction and maintenance through collaborative robots based on an open design approach, whereas Reinhardt et al (2020) studied the use of collaborative robots in construction processes requiring precision, flexibility and adaptability through a focus group study. Communication between robots and humans in a collaborative work environment is important to ensure tasks are handled according to specifications and adequately understood by teammates.…”

“…Cluster 3 integrated safety in robotics: exoskeleton to alleviate disorders and strain, task performance and vision-based development to improve collaborative human safety (Bademosi and Issa, 2021). Cluster 4 identifies issues around robots design with themes on industrial robots, machine design, welding, intelligence in robotics, use of sensors to improve feedback, computer vision to enhance object identification, robotic assembly, information systems, IoT and integration with BIM (Reinhardt et al, 2020;Xiang et al, 2021).…”

Construction Industry 4.0 and Sustainability: An Enabling Framework

“…Evidence from the literature suggests greater adoption of machine learning and artificial intelligence in the near future, as they are already advanced in other sectors such as manufacturing. For instance, industrial robots are already being trained to learn how to perform a task (Reinhardt et al, 2020). Artificial intelligence could automate many aspects of the design in the construction sector, based on data from previous works and the study of their behavior over time, Muñoz-La Rivera et al, 2021).…”

“…productivity has remained nearly flat for the last several decades, and part of the reason has been its conservative approach to project design and delivery (Reinhardt et al, 2020). This slow pace of innovation matters because of the industry's significant negative economic (e.g., low-profit margins, significant project delays, and budget overruns), environmental (e.g., high resource, energy, and water consumption and waste generation; accounts for 30% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions as per Craveiro et al, 2019) and social (e.g., high worker deaths/injuries, poor working conditions) impacts (Balasubramanian and Shukla, 2017a;Calvetti, 2020a;Turner et al, 2020;You and Feng, 2020).…”

“…Box 72229, Dubai, UAE (e-mail: shalini.ajayan@mbrsg.ac.ae) Construction Industry 4.0 and Sustainability: An Enabling Framework Sreejith Balasubramanian, Vinaya Shukla, Nazrul Islam*, and Shalini Manghat W TEM-21-0482.R1 also desk discourse analysis based (Chan, 2020;du Plessis and Sherratt, 2020) or secondary review based (Ibrahim et al, 2019;Akyazi et al, 2020); first-hand empirical insights are sadly missing. Finally, even without the sustainability aspect, knowledge of Construction 4.0 technologies itself is quite limited; most studies have narrowly focused on one or a few technologies (e.g., Ibrahim et al (2019) on Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Reinhardt et al (2020) and Moon et al (2020) on robotic technology), though there have been some recent attempts at a more comprehensive approach (e.g., Newman et al, 2020;Zabidin et al, 2020;and Forceal et al, 2020). Overall, this means that there are significant knowledge gaps that could hamper Construction 4.0's largescale acceptability and implementation both technology-wise as well as vis-à-vis its sustainability impacts.…”