A team at the University of British Columbia has developed “smart construction robots” for performing basic tasks on construction sites, such as lifting and moving objects. The team, led by Dr. Tony Yang from the University’s Smart Structures Lab, recently demonstrated the concept at a construction site in Richmond, British Columbia.

The team’s process sees aerial drones fitted with cameras capture details that are used to create a digital twin of the construction site. AI-equipped cranes and forklifts use the information to move construction materials, such as beams and columns, around the site without a human operator.

“Our smart construction robots are able to recognize objects, performing detailed scans of structural components for quality assurance,” Dr. Yang explains. “They can precisely place objects on site and check against a computer model to ensure they’re building according to plan. They can make autonomous decisions such as navigating around obstacles or instantly stopping work to protect a worker who is in danger.”

According to Dr. Yang, robots such as those developed by the UBC team will play a larger role in reducing construction times, increasing worker safety, and mitigating labor shortages in the sector. The team is now working with several local construction companies to use smart robots on commercial building projects.

News of the project comes months after the University of Illinois launched a center for autonomous construction research. In August, we covered news of a domed timber pavilion in Germany constructed using robots, while in April, we reported on a paper predicting that the global market for artificial intelligence in construction will grow significantly over the next decade.