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Dive Brief:
- A team of researchers from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver showed how it is The collection of robots could operate autonomously in a real workplace, according to a UBC press release, a preview that a professor gave a glimpse into the future.
- The UBC Smart Structures Lab team showed off the technology at a workplace demonstration on Mitchell Island in Richmond, British Columbia on November 14.
- Aerial drone cameras captured details that were then used to create digital twins of the workplace. Using this “as-built” information, AI-equipped cranes and forklifts moved construction materials, such as beams and columns, around the real site and navigated obstacles without the need for a human operator.
Diving knowledge:
The impetus for the development of the technology, Yang told Construction Dive, was derived the labor shortage this is hindering contractors in the US and Canada. Yang said that while the robot’s technology was usable and ready for the workplace, it was not yet commercially available.
However, the roadblock is not permanent: Yang said he expects that within the next 10 years, autonomous construction machinery will become “second nature”.
“Our goal is to ensure that workers actually become managers instead of doing the hard physical work,” Yang said. “They control a machine or give instructions to machines to do work.”
In addition to labor, an autonomous system can also detect whether they are workers enter an unsafe area. Yang said the software made more than 1,024 checks per second.
Yang stressed that the goal of his research was not to take away workers’ jobs. Similar claims have been met with skepticism by experts, some of whom say the future is impossible to predict.
In addition to on-the-job demonstrations, Yang said he and his team have also worked with Canadian contractors, such as Mississauga, Ont.-based Bird Construction, on solutions.
The team is also working with Canadian telecommunications giant Rogers on a product that would allow contractors to wrap the broader spectrum of digital construction management, from labor to machines and materials, under the umbrella of a single technological product.
Yang is also developing a fully autonomous excavator, which will use blueprints to excavate building foundations without human assistance.
He says his research is more “AI building” than “AI decorating.”
“They paint the wall, they put the tiles, but that’s putting the building together,” Yang said.
