Technology, DEI Stand out in Construction in 2022

Brief 

Robots and drones are finding their way onto more construction sites this year as major contractors turn to these and other technologies for a variety of reasons aimed at achieving greater efficiency and countering the effects of the pandemic. John Caulfield explores examples and the purposes served, as well as contractors’ growing focus on workplace diversity, equity and inclusion.

Insight

In 2021, Gilbane Building Company and Nextera Robotics partnered in a joint venture to develop an artificial intelligence platform utilizing a fleet of autonomous mobile robots.

The platform, dubbed Didge, is designed to automate construction management, maximize reliability and safety, and minimize operational costs.This was just one of myriad examples over the past 18 months of contractor giants turning to construction technology (ConTech) to gather jobsite data, manage workers and equipment, and smooth the construction process.

Drones in particular have become standard tools for large and small contractors alike. These include Charleston, S.C.-based Brownstone, which increased its use of drones for site evaluations and inspections, and for quality control.

Juneau Construction partnered with DroneDeploy to test and develop a 360 camera-based walkthrough platform for geolocated photo documentation of projects by any user.

Robotics took center stage at Swinerton, which last year became the first construction company with fully trained in-house operators for Dusty Robotics, and was an early adopter of that supplier’s FieldPrinter on projects in California, Texas, and Virginia.

Turner Construction also has been using robotics for drywall finishing, perform layout, and overhead drilling. Turner recently tested Boston Dynamics’ Spot robot during an extensive multiyear pilot.

The growing impact of ConTech would be hard to overstate, with many contractors playing catch-up to level the playing field. Arc Building Partners expanded its use of tools like VDC and BIM, and hired its first VDC manager. Earlier this year, Truebeck Construction started using SLAM (for simulated localization and mapping) scanning, specifically NavVis VLX.