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As cities continue to expand and infrastructure projects grow more ambitious, the construction sector is facing a crippling problem: There aren’t enough workers.
The U.S. alone will need to attract around half a million construction workers in 2025 to meet the anticipated demand for construction services, according to the trade association Associated Builders and Contractors. In fact, the construction industry in the United States has faced a significant shortage since the Great Recession of 2008 when it lost 30% of its workforce.
In response, several states have launched apprenticeships and beefed up community college programs to attract people to skilled trade occupations. Others have been busy building another kind of workforce: construction robots. Over the past decade, dozens of construction robots have cropped up on the market. Hilti Jaibot can drill on ceilings. Hadrian X can lay bricks. Okibo can plaster and paint walls. These construction robots weren’t developed to replace humans—but rather to perform tasks that are considered dangerous or repetitive.
The hurdle to broader adoption so far has been that many of these robots can only perform a limited number of very specific tasks. But that could soon change: Researchers at the Italian Institute of Technology have designed what they claim to be the world’s most modular construction robot, referring to the customizability of its component parts. Dubbed “Concert,” it can perform a wide array of tasks, including drilling, spraying insulation, sanding, and transporting 400-pound payloads.
Named for its ability to be “composed” or assembled for different scenarios, Concert consists of a mobile base and a modular arm that looks a bit like a Mars rover. The base is equipped with wheels that can be changed to fit the terrain, while the robotic arm can be outfitted with various tools depending on the task to be performed. Researchers tested Concert in Poland, and hope it will be available to the market within the next two to three years.
Why it’s so hard to build a construction robot
When it comes to automation, the construction industry lags behind others. In fact, construction robots specifically only began to crop up over the past 10 years or so, according to Nikolaos Tsagarakis, a tenured senior scientist and coordinator of the Concert project who has studied robotics for 30 years.
One of the biggest challenges is that construction sites are complex, unpredictable, and decentralized. Unlike, say, a manufacturing facility, where operations tend to be fixed, construction sites can vary wildly from one to the next. “This makes it much more challenging for the robot,” says Tsagarakis, noting that for a robot to be useful and efficient at a construction site, it must be able to adapt and have some degree of autonomy.
Another challenge is the array of tasks that are performed at a construction site. When companies develop a robot specifically for one task, they provide efficient and safer alternatives for humans, but these alternatives are not sustainable for construction companies in the long run. “The largest construction companies in the world need systems that are multipurpose,” says Tsagarakis.
How researchers design a robot that works
To understand what construction companies really need, the researchers developed Concert in collaboration with Budimex, one of the largest construction companies in Poland. The team also worked with research partners in Austria and Germany.
Thanks to a $3 million grant from the EU, the team spent three years developing the robot in a lab. Then, they tested it at a hospital construction site in Krakow, Poland. They performed one test in the winter and one in the summer, with both tests lasting 10 days each. During these field tests, the team validated four use cases: drilling on walls and ceilings of up to 3.5 meters high; spraying insulation (which is highly toxic to humans and must be performed while clad in protective suits); wall sanding (which is a very repetitive job); and assisting people when transporting heavy materials.
To operate autonomously, the team equipped Concert with a series of sensors like laser scanners, 3D cameras, and ultrasonic sensors. These allow the robot to perceive its surroundings, avoid obstacles, and interact with humans. It can also respond to basic voice commands like “lift” or “follow me” though its reaction time remains slow for now. In the tests, the robot was able to move from the construction site’s parking lot to an assigned location on the site completely on its own, where it drilled a hole with an accuracy of 1mm.
The team faced several challenges during the testing phase of the construction robots, which they have since been working on addressing. Critically, Concert struggled to perform in extreme temperatures (both too cold and too hot). They also had to adjust the user interface they had developed so workers with no technical background could use it more easily.
Tsagarakis maintains that these challenges are part of the process and that the robot will be optimized and reliable when it eventually hits the market. (The EU funding has ended, and the team is now busy raising funds and spin off into a startup.)
Why construction robots might be coworkers, not co-options
Tsagarakis acknowledges that there’s a fear that robots replace the need for humans and therefore cut jobs, but he believes that humans will remain crucial to the industry. Much like the steam engine, electricity, and even AI, he says that construction robots will simply eliminate some jobs and create others.
By bringing robots into the equation, companies could help convince the next generation of workers that construction isn’t as tedious or dangerous as it once was. Whether that’s enough to rebuild the workforce remains to be seen, but if robots like Concert succeed, the future of construction might not be about choosing between humans and machines—but about finding new ways for them to build together.