What New Technology in Construction Is Gaining Steam?
Construction, like many industries, is going through a widespread technological revolution. However – unlike some other sectors – architecture, engineering, and construction, collectively, is fairly new to technology and has been hesitant to embrace new tech throughout much of its history. Despite this aversion to innovation, new technology in construction is reshaping the industry.
This technology helps construction overcome many of its most substantial obstacles. New tech can address the safety problems, schedule and cost overruns, and large carbon footprints that have plagued the industry for years. Here are five such technologies gaining steam in construction.
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio
Wearables
Wearables are some of the fastest-growing new technologies in construction. While just 6% of contractors used wearables in 2018, 83% believe they can improve safety, causing the technology to gain impressive momentum. Smart helmets, wearable sensors, smart wristbands, and even connected shoes are available today, providing a vast range of real-time data insights.
Wearables like smart helmets or wristbands can monitor worker health indicators like heart rate and perspiration. If they detect that someone is nearing exhaustion, they can alert them and their on-site manager, telling them to take a break to prevent injury. Similarly, proximity sensors can alert workers when they get close to a ledge, preventing falls.
Real-time location data from wearables can also help site managers know where everyone is. This visibility helps improve safety and makes it easier to communicate on-site.
Augmented Reality
Augmented reality (AR) is another technology that helps construction teams improve safety. This technology superimposes digital images over users’ real-world views using either phone screens or specialized glasses. In construction, AR glasses can provide important safety information and alerts.
With AR glasses, workers can pull up relevant safety procedures or reminders to have in their field of view as they work. That way, they can make sure they follow all the right steps without having to hold anything or turn away to read paper instructions. In the same way, AR glasses can provide training tips to new employees to streamline the onboarding process.
While this technology is still new, adoptees cite many benefits of using AR, including improved efficiency and quality control, despite its current limitations. As AR technology advances, its potential in the industry will only grow.
Robotics
Robotics are standard in industries like manufacturing, but they’ve only recently broken into construction. While fully automated heavy machinery may not yet be a reality, construction robots are already bringing value to worksites.
Drones can survey areas faster and more safely than people before construction begins. They can also monitor worksites and alert employees if their cameras and sensors detect new hazards. Some construction teams have started using autonomous drones as a security measure, patrolling worksites to deter trespassers.
A less traditional but equally exciting application of this new technology in construction is wearable robotics. These machines, more commonly called exoskeletons, support workers’ limbs as they work, letting them lift objects and squat without exerting themselves as much. As a result, they prevent repetitive strain injuries.
Modular Construction
Modular construction isn’t a specific new construction technology but rather a method that new technologies enable. In modular projects, teams construct buildings in pieces in controlled factory environments before shipping them for final assembly at the worksite.
Since most of the work in modular construction happens in factory environments, it can use robotics and other autonomous equipment extensively. As a result, they lead to enormous time and cost savings from automation’s efficiency. Working in a controlled environment also reduces the risk of rework, further saving time and money.
Modular construction can also involve advanced data-centric technologies like machine learning. Machine learning algorithms analyze factory workflows to find areas to improve, helping modular projects become as efficient as possible. All this efficiency also leads to sustainability improvements from decreased work-related emissions.
Building Information Modeling
It’s difficult to talk about new technology in construction without mentioning building information modeling (BIM). These digital modeling solutions have quickly become standard throughout much of the industry. BIM adoption is nearly universal at larger firms, and smaller companies are starting to embrace it, too.
BIM does more than make it easier to create building designs. It also features clash detection, which alerts users to potential design, regulatory, or workflow errors so they can fix them before
construction begins and avoid rework. This error prevention leads to considerable waste reduction and time savings.
BIM can also integrate with more cutting-edge technologies like AR and machine learning. Workers could view portions of BIM models through AR glasses as they work and machine learning algorithms could analyze designs to plan modular workflows.
How Does Technology Help Construction?
As more firms realize how technology helps construction, more are embracing innovation. The industry today is moving past its long-standing reliance on traditional methods to become more agile, cost-efficient, sustainable, and safe than ever before.
These five technologies are among the most disruptive and fastest-growing in the industry. As these and similar innovations gain steam, the sector will soon look entirely different than it did just a decade ago. That change is for the better.
