Robotic Programming for Simplified Construction Applications

The construction industry has been experiencing an increasing labor shortage in recent years. The impact of this shortage is exacerbated by the construction industry’s lag in adopting modern automation and productivity enhancement technologies such as artificial intelligence and robotics. Implementing robotics technologies could help to modernize the industry and improve efficiency, productivity, and safety on construction projects. To support increased adoption and simplified implementation of robotics applications in the industry, this paper presents a detailed implementation and programming of a small mobile car with a flexible robotic arm attachment to demonstrate that robotic implementation can be technically feasible using commercial programmable kits. Existing commercial and experimental robotics applications are then presented to showcase a wide range of ideas for robotics applications. The simplified implementation can appeal to technology-savvy young individuals and can attract them to the construction industry, where they can make substantial enhancements to productivity and safety through automation.