Building Manufacturability and Robotics

Manufacturability of buildings at the same level2 of effectiveness as other products has been a long struggle with mixed results. Current advances in CAD/CAM and Robotics promise to make it more plausible today than at any other time. Difficulties of building manufacturing relate to a number of factors; diversity of buildings, transportation problems, complexity of the building design and construction processes, fragmentation of the building industry, lack of building standards, non-uniformity of local building ordinances, large capital investment needs, restrictive labor and union practices, and practical non-existence of research. Emergence of automation in manufacturing promises important advantages for the building industry: quality of product, speed of production, economic potential, international business potential, humanitarian benefits and strategic importance for rapid deployment of buildings. This work outlines strategies in several broad areas of application -- design, construction, industrial, financial and regulatory where robotics is useful.