Current State of Automation and Robotics in Construction

The use of robots is growing in the manufacturing industries. But in field-oriented industries like construction, adaptation to automation technologies has been slower. The most progress to date in automation for construction has been made in the control of temporary on-site plants for batching concrete, bending reinforcement steel, and making pre-cast concrete elements. However in order to automate construction processes more effectively, it will be necessary to develop methods and approaches for design that recognize the characteristics of construction machinery. The objective of this paper is to examine the needs and potential of automation and robotics technologies and review the state-of-the-art in selected automation related areas.