Kick start the ROBOlution with Smart Robotics

The emergence of construction robots has revolutionised the construction industry. It is no not easy for the industry to improve speed, efficiency, and quality of construction projects under traditional construction practices, but the never-tiring, highly accurate construction robots would meet the needs of the industry perfectly and fill in the productivity gaps brought by labour shortage. Making use of construction robots in highly dangerous working space in place of workers would immensely improve site safety. Ir Thomas HO, Chairman of the Construction Industry Council (CIC), led a delegation of industry leaders, to Foshan for a tour of Bright Dream Robotics Limited as well as the campus expansion project of the Second People’s Hospital of Foshan, constructed by China Railway Group (Southern) Limited, to see various construction robots in action, and their applications in a smart site facility. The CIC also invited Bright Dream Robotics to take part in the “Workshops on Construction Robots” held in Hong Kong, to showcase the latest construction robotics to local practitioners, and allow a better understanding of construction robotics on how robotics can enhance productivity, and drive the industry’s digital transformation.

The Three Core Pillars of Safety, Quality, Efficiency

Since its establishment in July 2018, Bright Dream Robotics has focused its efforts on the research and development, production and application of construction robotics, and its integration with Building Information Modelling (BIM). Thanks to the efforts of over 1,000 qualified researchers with doctorate degrees, Bright Dream Robotics were able to take enormous strides in its research in just a few years. Mr. WANG Ke-cheng, Chairman of Bright Dream Robotics stated that, since its establishment, the company has been devoted to the development and application of the smart construction robots, and have continued to optimise technologies to adapt to the needs and the complex nature of construction sites, eventually achieve a high standard of safety, quality, and efficiency. When it comes to talent development in smart construction, Bright Dream Robotics has also maintained close contact with various major institutions, to foster new talents and technologies via a collaborative system between production, education, and research institutions, in hopes of providing better foundations for more smart construction solutions, and hence more opportunities for smart construction robots in the future.

Commanding Three Robots at the Same Time

Bright Dream Robotic’s products are primarily painted in an eye-catching pink colour. Fully autonomous in nature, and only needed to be filled up with construction materials, the robots can triple the productivity compared with traditional construction workers. Though the construction process can be long and complex, a high level of efficiency can still be achieved when combining different construction robots’ functionalities. The group also visited the a project in Foshan, which was one of the pioneer sites that uses smart construction robots. The delegation witnessed a worker operating three construction robots simultaneously: the technician first selected the appropriate robots with the help of BIM tools. Then various robots of different functionalities, such as Putty Spraying Robot, Painting Robot and Measuring Robots can be assigned specific tasks. The robots can also accurately install floor tiles and wooden floorboards, often times with higher quality than that of traditional manual labour, as the robots can automatically adjust the use of adhesive according to different weather condition, and improve the uniformity of the tiles with the consistent accuracy that can be achieved by machines.

Mr. Stanley TANG, Assistant Director (Hong Kong and UK) of Country Garden Holdings revealed the satisfactory results on its first trial in Hong Kong, at the public housing estate project at Tsing Hong Road, Tsing Yi, in which it took the robots only 15 minutes to finish painting the interior and the ceiling, and successfully covered 95% of the work area. Meanwhile, the delegation also visited the Bright Dream Robotics’ headquarters to witness a live demonstration of its “Exterior Walls Painting Robot.” Frontline workers can control the robot wirelessly via a tablet like a pilot. The robot is capable of painting a maximum of 5.5 meter length area each time, and complete 500 square meters’ work in one hour, which would reduce works at height, and mitigate the risks of falling, enhancing site safety.

Last year, the CIC invited Bright Dream Robotics to participate in the “Workshops on Construction Robots,” to share their knowledge on robotics with industry practitioners, as well as showcasing the potential of its four robots at a renovation project of an industrial building at Tuen Mun, including the Putty (Spraying) Robot, Measuring Robot, Putty (Polishing) Robot and Painting Robot. The CIC also arranged site tours for stakeholders to experience and better understand the use and benefits of these robots, in hopes of encouraging the industry to adopt innovative technologies on a wider scale, to improve productivity and safety.

Smart Construction Site in Foshan

In fact, multiple sites in Mainland China have already started implementing construction robots of various sorts. The bigger the site, the more crucial it is for them to adopt smart site management systems. The delegation visited the construction sites of one of the megaprojects in the Guangdong province and Foshan region – the Second People’s Hospital of Foshan campus expansion project, constructed by China Railway Group (Southern) Limited, to observe the application of smart construction robots. The expansion project covers about 252,600 square meters, and is expected to provide an additional 1,200 bed for maximising the hospital’s daily patient-handling capacity by another 10,000, and further optimise the hospital’s resources. The project employed vast amounts of innovative technologies, including at least 13 different types of robots specialising in different areas of the construction process, such as floor levelling, polishing, brick laying, painting and measuring etc, in order to impose a higher standard of quality. For example, compared with traditional methods, using the “Floor Levelling Robot” can increase the quality of output by 95%, saving the workers from going through a second round of levelling process, and could move on to brick laying straightaway.

Central Construction Command Platform Allows for Comprehensive Monitoring

Despite the benefits of the smart construction robots, they cannot go without proper instruction. Therefore, a central construction command platform was developed by the China Railway Group (Southern) Limited, unifying the ability to monitor projects all over the country under the same system, and helping the project team to better track the whole construction process. The platform contains a “smart quality control” module that uses big data analytics and real time surveillance to create a “smart quality inspector” on the cloud, to closely monitor and document the production quality throughout the construction process. Not only can workers’ online profile, and their working status be viewed within the module, it can also reveal precise information regarding various parts of the construction process, such as materials used, weight of different components, and even the temperature of the concrete. The system automatically looks for any abnormalities and any potential problems the workers may face in the construction process, and issue reminders accordingly, in order to save time, and improve efficiency at the management level. Ir HO was impressed by the functionality of the command central, and the positive effects it will bring to driving the trend in adopting smart construction methods.

New and innovative technologies are emerging by the second and areas of application for robotics in construction are ever expanding. The construction sector has enormous potential to transform itself into a technological powerhouse in the future, and complete construction projects at immense speed and accuracy, and bring along a faster, safer and more innovative construction experience.