Research project will develop construction robots that could boost both on-site and off-site sustainability
Skanska UK has won a 拢700,000 grant to develop robots for on-site and off-site construction that could greatly boost the sustainability credentials of construction projects.
The robots would be deployed on site, or in off-site mobile workshops, to carry out cutting, drilling and fixing.
Speaking to 黑洞社区, Skanska鈥檚 head of innovation, Sam Stacey, who is leading the research project into construction robots, called Flexible Robotic Assembly Modules for the Built Environment, said the robots will help improve sustainability across the industry.
By using these robots in off-site mobile workshops to build structures used on site, Stacey said, the robots will reduce the number of vehicles and deliveries to a site and reduce the carbon emissions produced on site.
He also said that the robots鈥� automated technique in cutting, drilling and fixing components for structures 鈥渇orces through proper design, manufacture and assembly鈥� which, he said, 鈥減aves the way for increased optimisation鈥� of design and manufacture techniques and will thereforereduce the amount of 鈥減hysical waste and re-work required鈥�.
The robots use BIM to help carry out operations that are dangerous or tedious
Sam Stacey, Skanska
Stacey added that this will also reduce running costs of a building and help it achieve lifetime sustainability.
Skanska is leading a research consortium on the robots project, which also includes industrial robot supplier ABB Robotics, and consultants Exelin.
The robots will cost firms 鈥渁 few tens of thousands鈥�, according to Stacey. He said for that money the robots will be able to use BIM to help carry out operations on site that are 鈥渄angerous, tedious or struggle to achieve good accuracy鈥�.
The 拢700,000 award to develop the robots came from the UK鈥檚 innovation agency, Innovate UK, and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, as part of their joint research and development programme.
The robots could be used in combination with another of Skanska鈥檚 research projects, the development of mobile off-site workshops that can be moved from site to site, dubbed 鈥渇lying factories鈥�.
The research project into construction robots starts this October and will run for two-and-a-half years.
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