Infrastructures and Superstructures: Accomodating Robotics in Construction

Automation in robotics in construction are integral to the techno-economic paradigm founded on the developments in microelectronics and telecommunications. Technological change is not uniquely a technical phenomena, it also requires a complex of social and institutional factors to be satisfied for its effective implementation. There has to be a synergy between the technical, social and institutional. The role of social factors in conditioning and constraining technical change in construction is self evident, but there is a certain confusion as to the nature of the technology choice function. Construction technology is usually conceived as relating to either the construction 'product' in itself or to the methods of production. Choice of technique in construction can be seen as a function of one or more of the 'actors' engaged in the construction process. Within the presently dominant paradigm the choice function is biased towards the 'product', but innovations in automation and robotics will effectively restructure the construction process and effect a shift in the centre of gravity of the choice function towards production.