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Journal of Intelligent Construction 2023, 1(1): 9180002 https://doi.org/10.26599/JIC.2023.9180002
Review Article | Open Access | Issue | Published: 29 March 2023

Intelligent robots and human–robot collaboration in the construction industry: A review

Show Author's Information Hsi-Hien Wei1,  Yuting Zhang2,  Ximing Sun2,  Jiayu Chen2( ),  Shixian Li1
Department of Building & Real Estate, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
School of Civil Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Keywords:
robotics, taxonomy, human–robot collaboration (HRC), innovation adaption
Cite this article:
Wei H-H, Zhang Y, Sun X, et al. Intelligent robots and human–robot collaboration in the construction industry: A review. Journal of Intelligent Construction, 2023, 1(1): 9180002. https://doi.org/10.26599/JIC.2023.9180002
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Abstract Full text About this article

The construction industry is a typical labor-intensive industry, which suffers from low productivity and labor shortage in the past decades. Recently, the developments in robotics and artificial intelligence technologies highlight the evolutionary reforming potential in the construction industry. An increasing number of robots are joining construction tasks and collaborating with human workers. This study reviews the major developments in intelligent robots and human–robot collaboration (HRC) in the construction industry. The technological foundations and fundamental concepts of construction robots and collaborative robots are reviewed, organized, and discussed to reveal that progress has been made. Based on a comprehensive review, the major challenges and future research directions of HRC have been proposed and examined. This study finally developed a comprehensive and in-depth discussion of the state-of-the-art implementation of robotics technologies in the construction industry and shed light on its path to future development.


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About this article

Intelligent robots and human–robot collaboration in the construction industry: A review

Show Author's information Hsi-Hien Wei1, Yuting Zhang2, Ximing Sun2, Jiayu Chen2( ), Shixian Li1
Department of Building & Real Estate, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
School of Civil Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

Abstract

The construction industry is a typical labor-intensive industry, which suffers from low productivity and labor shortage in the past decades. Recently, the developments in robotics and artificial intelligence technologies highlight the evolutionary reforming potential in the construction industry. An increasing number of robots are joining construction tasks and collaborating with human workers. This study reviews the major developments in intelligent robots and human–robot collaboration (HRC) in the construction industry. The technological foundations and fundamental concepts of construction robots and collaborative robots are reviewed, organized, and discussed to reveal that progress has been made. Based on a comprehensive review, the major challenges and future research directions of HRC have been proposed and examined. This study finally developed a comprehensive and in-depth discussion of the state-of-the-art implementation of robotics technologies in the construction industry and shed light on its path to future development.

Keywords: robotics, taxonomy, human–robot collaboration (HRC), innovation adaption

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Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements
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Publication history

Received: 21 December 2022
Revised: 11 February 2023
Accepted: 20 February 2023
Published: 29 March 2023
Issue date: March 2023

Copyright

© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Tsinghua University Press.

Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the Startup Fund of Tsinghua University (No. 025114002).

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The articles published in this open access journal are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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