To encourage, facilitate and promote the coordination of scientific and technical development in Automation and Robotics in Construction (ARC).
To facilitate the collection, compilation, publication, exchange and dissemination of scientific ARC data and information.
To encourage the execution of fundamental ARC studies, to advance research, laboratory investigations and field tests and to accelerate the use of ARC.
To assist the end-user application of Automation and Robotics in the Construction Industry.
The IAARC objectives are achieved by:
Coordination of the annual International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction (ISARC).
Participation in the yearly ISARC.
Presenting state-of-the-art papers on regional developments at ISARC.
Active membership in IAARC committees.
Publication of a newsletter.
Maintaining a website.
Contributions to Elsevier's Journal of Automation in Construction.
Association with leading organizations such as ASCE, CIB, etc.
Participation of IAARC directors in their host national advisory boards and advising policy-makers on how to take advantage of emerging ARC technologies.
2. The Organizational Structure of IAARC:
IAARC is a non-profit-making organization that uses memberships dues to develop services for, and facilitate and maintain communication between its members.
IAARC is managed by its board whose directors and presidency continually change. This dynamic nature of the Association ensures fresh ideas are brought into the
organization whilst benefiting from the experience of others.
3. The Members of IAARC's Board:
The Board of Directors (BOD) meets annually during the ISARC symposium. The board has some virtual meetings. The members meet annually during the ISARC symposium. The members of IAARC's board are the President, the Vice President, Past President and General Secretary. Their activities involve:
Take responsibility for the association.
Approach new members.
Initiate and prepare board meetings.
Create reports for the annual BOD-meeting, i.e. membership status, financial statement and the budget for coming years.
The growing interest shown internationally towards the end of the 1980's in Automation and Robotics in Construction (ARC) matters led to the formation of
IAARC in 1990. By then a number of international symposia had already been convened and the creation of IAARC satisfied the demand for an umbrella organization.
IAARC is a global community with specific concern for all fields of construction including civil and building engineering, machine automation, robotics applications
to construction, IT technologies, planning, logistics, etc. IAARC.s membership is not just restricted to end-users, manufacturers and researchers, but welcomes
participation from other industrial sectors and from government organisations.
The ISARCs, hosted in several countries worldwide, have yielded diverse refereed
papers that have been published in proceedings. Together these form a compelling illustration of how Automation & Robotics in Construction developments continue
to march towards the market place. Contributions from all continents at ISARCs provide the major platform for delegates to exchange views and information and
discuss how they might work together on new projects.
The first ISARC was held in Pittsburgh, Pennsyvania, U.S.A., where speakers made all the presentations from only three nations, the United States of America, Japan,
and Finland. In 1984, this event, organized by the Carnegie-Mellon University had a workshop structure, and it was called 'Robotics in Construction'. Both the first and
second symposia were held in the form of a workshop in Pittsburgh. This is how ISARC was born.
The first ISARC in the form of symposium was held in 1986 in Marseille, France, and it was titled 'International Joint Conference on CAD and Robotics in Architecture
and Construction'. The fourth ISARC was held in Haifa, Israel and was titled 'International Symposium on Robotics and Artificial Intelligence in Building Construction'.
The fifth ISARC was held in Japan, and was titled 'International Symposium on Robotics in Construction', where the current form of ISARC was more or less established.
At this symposium, automation in construction was extensively discussed. This gave birth to the ISARC as we now know it and thus from the 6th symposium held in San
Francisco in 1989, ISARC has continued the same tradition. One of the biggest symposia was the 13th ISARC, which was held in Tokyo, Japan in 1996 and in which 118 papers
were accepted and 350 delegates participated from 20 different countries.
At the first Workshop Conference, held in Pittsburgh in 1984, Professor Sangrey noted that the scope of robotics applications was defined broadly to include not only
mechanical systems, but also computer integrated construction and knowledge-based expert systems. He continued to say, "Robotics in construction represents one of a
group of related applications for robotics in unstructured environments. Applications in agriculture, mining, undersea, space, hazardous environments and others are
included with construction".
In 2009, IAARC and CIB (The International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction) form a partnership that enhances both organizations.
By 2010, over 1,000 proceedings have been published and made available online on the new IAARC website and the corresponding ISARC host websites. A search engine on the
IAARC website allows any IAARC website user to search and access.proceedings from 1999 and later by keywords, title, author name (free of charge to the user!).
