In limited instances, automated or semi-automated devices are already working alongside humans. Robotics use in construction continues to make headway, though, as technology rapidly advances and the need for new solutions to worker shortages remains strong. SAM’s just there to do the heavy lifting.” It still requires a mason to work alongside it. What SAM does is to pick up the bricks, put mortar on them, and puts them on the wall. “This is about collaboration between human workers and machines. “We don’t see construction sites being fully automated for decades, if not centuries,” Zachary Podkaminer of Construction Robotics, the New York-based company that developed SAM, told Digital Trends in 2017. So, does that mean a crew of SAMs can or even should replace a human crew? Not any time soon, according to one expert.
A human bricklayer typically averages around 500. For example, using a conveyor belt, robotic arm and concrete pump, Construction Robotics’ SAM100 (Semi-Automated Mason) can lay 3,000 bricks per day as it works alongside a mason. Numerically, there are some clear wins for productivity when you leverage the repeatability of a robotic element to get work done, versus the variability of human work.
Could robots, smart systems and automated processes someday soon control the full operation of a construction site? Would it make the job of a project manager easier or harder in the short term? Long term?