Social Requirements for the Use of Robots on Building Sites

Despite the wide variety of rationalisation process, building work is not based on any concept of labour distribution in Taylor’s sense of the term. In the federal republic of Germany it is more organised on the gang system. This functions in accordance with the principle of flexible work-force deployment. In principle, each member of the gang is required to be able to perform every kind of work that might arise. This guarantees that all members of the working gang are interchangeable. Independent action, communication and cooperation, which do not need to rely on orders from a superior, are taken for granted. The development of industrial robots must assume these essential features in the building process. What is required is a labour- distribution concept that preferably allocates to the robot those physically difficult and routinely monotonous activities that are part of the gang’s activities. The worker, on the other hand, need to be freed gradually from this activity, so that he can devote himself to more significant activities calling for qualified skills. The entire process into which the robot is to be integrated must be coordinated by people. The robot must be man’s helper and not the other way round!