Some examples of robots now in use
Over the last decade there it has been suggested many times that robots will take over construction sites, but today they are conspicuous by their absence. So how much progress has been made in actually getting robots onsite in construction?
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) defines a robot as ‘a programmed actuated mechanism with a degree of autonomy to perform locomotion, manipulation or positioning.’ There are separate definitions of industrial robots and service robots, with construction and agriculture robots classified as service robots because they are mobile. Not regarded as robots are software, remote-controlled drones, voice assistants, and autonomous vehicles. The International Federation of Robotics estimates there were 3.9 million installed industrial robots in 2023.
For the purposes of this post the ISO definition is followed, where a robot is an autonomous or semi-autonomous mobile machine that undertakes or assists with a specific task that can be found working onsite. Excluded are exoskeletons, software systems and platforms, offsite manufacturing, remote controlled equipment and drones, autonomous excavators and graders, and 3D concrete printing.
Included are 17 robots, three for bricklaying, five for layout printing and surveying, four for reality capture and site monitoring, and one for each of drywall finishing, anchor hole drilling, rebar fixing, underfloor insulation, and solar farm construction.
Also, by restricting this review to onsite robotic equipment currently in use startups are not included. There are many of these around the world and some have reached demonstration stage with their technology. However, getting a robot from the research and development stage to onsite use is a difficult path and few startups have so far been successful, and often has required partnering with a larger, more established firm.
There is one technology in particular where there is rapid development that will be important to future construction, and may be a transformational technology, that is not included here. These are the humanoid robots being developed by Boston Dynamics, Agility Robotics, Figure AI, UBTECH Robotics, Engineered Arts, Hanson Robotics, Sanctuary AI, PAL Robotics, SuperDroid and SoftBank Robotics. The Tesla Optimus robot is due in 2025 for Tesla factories and 2026 for sale. The Amazon Digit warehouse robot has been developed by Agility Robotics and is also due to be trialled in 2025.
Bricklaying
Figure 1. Bricklaying robots
The Hadrian X is a truck mounted arm that builds walls while leaving window and door openings. It uses custom blocks about twice the size of a standard brick with glue applied to the bottom when placed. Developed in Australia, 10 projects have been completed in WA, and it has just been approved for site use in the US.
Monumental’s robot bricklayer places bricks and mortar, operated by Atrium, an AI- software. Developed in the Netherlands, Monumental completed a 15-metre facade in 2023, has since done a social housing project, and now has partnerships with 25 general contractors.
From New York company Construction Robotics, the MULE (Material Unit Lift Enhancer) comes in two versions. It is lift-assist equipment designed to handle and place heavy material on construction sites, using a 3 metre arm attached to a stand. The MULE robot lifts and places bricks and blocks for a bricklayer as they lay courses. There are several case studies on their website, and it was used in Australia on the Sydney Metro project.
Drywall/Plasterboard Finishing
The San Francisco company’s drywall finishing robots capture 99.9% of the dust produced by sanding, applies a layer of joint compound over wet tape, and comes in two models that telescope to 12 or 15.5 feet (3.7 and 4.6 meters). It can produce a paint ready surface in two days, one for applying mud and one for sanding, with Level 4 targeted spray and Level 5 finishes. Canvas uses the Formant platform for data collection, analysis, and robot management, and has over-the-air software updates. Canvas has a strategic partnership with Hilti.
Figure 2. Drywall and anchor hole drilling robots
Anchor Holes
Liechtenstein based company Hilti launched the Jaibot in 2020. A semi-autonomous, BIM-enabled, mobile robot it drills anchor holes for mechanical, electrical and plumbing services and has been used on projects around the world by major contractors like Skanska, Bouygues, De Groot etc. Norwegian company nLink started developing the Drilly robot in 2013 before partnering with Hilti in 2017 to commercialise the technology as Jaibot.
Line Printers
The HP SitePrint robot is an autonomous machine that prints construction layouts from CAD files using different inks for different types of layouts. Wireless links the 2D CAD file to the robotic systems that set the control points on the site. SitePrint works with base stations from: Leica ICON Total Robotic Stations; Topcon Layout navigator; and Trimble RTS573. Used in Australia by Aptelia, who also have the TinySurveyorPlotter from Monsen Engineering, designed for road works and other hard surfaces.
Figure 3. Line printing and layout robots
Their FieldPrinter automates layouts and is integrated with Autodesk Revitt and autoCAD. Their customer stories page has 15 projects. Example: On a hospital expansion project in Chicago by RG Construction, FieldPrinter was used to print the layout for the framing, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and HVAC, with an estimated $300k in savings.
The San Francisco company backed by AlleyCorp has been used on over 100 US solar farms. It has two robots for coordinate collection and construction layouts. CivDot is an all-terrain 4 wheel drive rover that links to Trimble, Leica, Topcon and NTRIP base stations. It marks a point with paint but also has a speaker if a person is adding a physical marker like a flag or stake. The CivDash is for hard surfaces like roads and car parks. Example: Bechtel got a 6 times increase in coordinate collection for solar projects as CivDot gathered 125 points per hour while 2-person crews captured 20 per hour.
German robot Tyker Plotter is a compact autonomous robot for marking lines on roads and asphalt using local sensors or a Total Station.
Surveying and Monitoring
Figure 4. Surveying and site monitoring robots
Founded by MIT in the US, the Nextera DIDGE robot does site inspections and progress monitoring. Available as a tracked or wheeled robot it scans and documents a project. An AI powered system uses a variety of sensors to capture and compare wall, ceiling, mechanical, electrical and plumbing work to a BIM model.
The US company has AI driven ‘reality capture’ technology using a dock for aerial or ground robots that schedules inspections. The aerial DroneDeploy Flight App works on commercial drones and provides site mapping, facade and roof inspections. The aerial data can be combined with interior and exterior data from DroneDeploy Ground, which uses handheld 360 degree cameras, smart phones or Boston Dynamics Spotrobots that walk the site to collect data. Contractors like Turner Construction,Leighton Asia, and in Australia Hansen Yuncken have used these.
Onsite Technology is a Californian company that automates inspection and records the barcodes and location of panels in a solar farm using a rover with high resolution cameras. The geolocated data is uploaded to DroneDeploy to create a map of the panels and record their condition.
The Spot robot is also available with Trimble reality capture sensors. It can run autonomously once a site has been mapped. Used by contractors like Suffolk, Strabag, Virginia Tech etc.
Figure 5. SuperDroid robots
US company SuperDroid has over a dozen robots designed for tasks such as site, pipe and crawl space inspection and materials handling. Capable of autonomous navigation after being driven once to create a map and path to follow. Used by Arup, Trimble, Balfour Beaty, DPR, Caterpillar, Gilbane, Black & Veatch etc. Superdroid have a quadruped robot called Cat that is like the Spot robot, and is developing a telepresence humanoid robot called Rocky for difficult or remote construction sites.
Rebar Fixing
Advanced Construction Robotics
The Pittsburgh company’s TyBOT is a rebar tying robot that self-navigates, self-ties, and does not require programming or a BIM plan. TyBOT’s partner, IronBOT, lifts, carries and places up to 5,000LB (2,268 kilos) an hour of rebar, from 9 to 60 foot bars (2.7 to 18.2 meters). ACR claims these robots can be set up and working onsite in a few hours. They have 2 dozen bridge and road projects on their website. Example: Over five months, D.T. Read completed the I-30 Arkansas Bridge using three TyBOT units that did 669,142 ties with a 30 percent schedule reduction.
Figure 6. Rebar fixing robots
Foam Insulation Spray
UK company Q-Bot robots can be controlled manually or operate autonomously to apply spray foam insulation to the underside of a suspended floor. Their 3D surveying platform has sensors to create point clouds that can be converted into simplified 3D models like Autodesk Revit and stored in AWS. Q-bot has seven UK and two French partners that use their robot.
Solar Installation
AES Maximo
AES Corporation is an American energy generation company, and they developed the Maximo robot for solar farm construction. It can install solar panels twice as fast as humans for half the cost. AES has installed 10 megawatts so far and plans to use Maximo to install five gigawatts over the next three years. Also used by Amazon constructing their largest solar farm at Bellefield.
Figure 7. Solar panel installation and underfloor insulation robots
Conclusion
Seventeen construction robots currently found onsite have been reviewed, however this is not intended to be comprehensive and no doubt there are others not included here. The ISO definition of a robot has been followed, which excludes exoskeletons, software, offsite manufacturing, remote controlled drones, autonomous excavators and graders, and onsite 3D concrete printing. Also excluded are startups with robotic equipment that is not yet being used onsite, and all the humanoid robots that are under development.
The degree of autonomy varies widely between these machines, but they have in common the ability to work without a human operator controlling their actions. Although remote controlled machines are becoming more common, like the Brokk or Husquavarna demolition machines, aerial drones like Skycatch or Voliro and tracked or wheeled rovers from Rugged Robotics or Acuity, the number of machines that can operate autonomously or semi-autonomously is still small. That said, many of these machines require humans to provide materials, like bricks for FBR’s Hadrian X, panels for Maximo and paint cans for line printers.
There are two broad categories of successful construction robots. The first is onsite data capture and use. This includes line printing, surveying, mapping, reality capture and inspection robots. These all have various combinations of sensors that allow autonomous site navigation, and range from relatively simple machines like line printers operating with a Total Station to complex combinations of technologies like Spot robots with site monitoring and mapping systems attached.
The second are repetitive tasks that have been automated successfully so robots can undertake them. These include bricklaying, drywall finishing, drilling, rebar tying, underfloor insulation and solar panel installing. The anchor hole drilling Jaibot has been available since 2020 and has been used on many sites around the world, making it arguably the most successful construction robot to date.
The important point is that these robots are now onsite. Although they may not yet be widely used, the fact that they are in use shows the construction industry is finding ways to develop and adopt them, despite the industry’s characteristics and structure, and the challenges and barriers faced by any major new technology. Further, the robots reviewed here are the first wave, leading the way for the wide range of robots and autonomous equipment that both established firms and startups are developing for the industry. In the near future more robots will be seen on construction sites, as many of the industry’s tasks become a working partnership between people and intelligent machines.
