Proptech offers a clever technological answer to snap lines.
The centuries-old method of multiple workers marking out the dimensions of a construction site by drawing chalk lines as part of a surveying process is increasingly being replaced by automated robots that are more efficient and at least as accurate, experts say.
As part of this equation, such robot development is generally influenced by skills shortages and pricing, said Albert Zulps, national director of emerging technology at the global construction giant Scania.
“I’m pretty excited about the opportunities that robotics presents in construction, especially given some of the reports I’ve read about predicted labor shortages, particularly in surveying,” Zulps said from his Boston office. “We have a lot of experience with robotics at the regional, national and international levels. My perspective on robotics is that there are general robots, things like Positionfrom Boston Dynamicsthat can do a lot of different things, maybe not all of them very well, but they’re very versatile. However, they’re also very, very expensive – basically almost as much as a project engineer spends per year. So the value proposition of those might be more difficult.
“And then there are these types of niche robots that focus more on a specific task. They do a lot more than a normal robot. And the price is actually much more attractive.”
Skanska uses robots for special tasks such as taking 360-degree photos of projects, documenting construction sites, bending rebar and laying bricks, as well as surveying work, Zulps said.
“We’re still exploring the landscape,” he said. “When you do a site survey and plan things with a robot, you have to consider a lot of different aspects — efficiency, accuracy and safety, in particular. What we’re excited about is being able to more intelligently distribute the effort that goes into something like layout and take the risk away from the teams doing the layout. So people don’t have to bend over and have blind spots when they’re crouching down to clamp a line. They’re not always aware of the situation. When a robot does that work, people are still busy, but they can better plan in advance what they’re going to plan.”
Zulps is convinced that the use of surveying robots in the construction industry is increasing steadily, albeit unevenly.
“Right now, it really depends on the complexity of the project and the level of team collaboration and proximity to the technology,” he said. “Perhaps we will see rapid adoption when there are more examples in the industry of this working.”
One of the Proptech startups that Skanska uses for projects is Dusty roboticswhich claims Pioneering automated planning in construction with a Roomba-like robot called Field printer.
Tessa Lau, CEO and co-founder of Dusty Robotics, explained that the company’s goal is to update the construction methods of the last 5,000 years.
“After you create a plan and model of what you want to build, the people on the ground know what to do. Someone takes the plan, which is usually a series of drawings on a piece of paper, and crawls around on their hands and knees using tape measure and string to stake out those plans on the ground,” Lau said. “This process is called staking and is usually done by professionally trained staking teams who build using marks laid out by surveyors at known locations on the ground.
Dusty Robotics is modernizing this process, which would have been known to the ancient Egyptians, Lau said.
“We’re developing a robot that takes the digital blueprints and uses surveying technology to automate the process of marking those floor plans on the ground,” she said. “And that eliminates all the errors that happen when people are involved in measuring and marking. It also offers the opportunity to build buildings faster and more cost-effectively, with fewer people getting hurt.”
Dusty Robotics’ robot can also deliver data to construction professionals on site, Lau said. The startup, founded in April 2018 and based in Mountain View, California, won the 2024 Fast Company – Award for the most innovative robotics.
“So imagine a robot vacuum cleaner with a printer strapped to it,” Lau explained of the FieldPrinter, which is currently in its second generation and has a third version coming soon. “We built a small robot on wheels, about 30 x 60 cm, that drives around on the floor. On a freshly poured concrete floor with no markings, our robot is the first thing that sets foot on that floor, and wherever it goes, it leaves a little trail of ink, marking these plans on the floor.”
Another feature built into the robot last year is the ability to print QR codes on the floor to provide additional information on site. “An electrician standing on that concrete slab and scanning one of the QR codes printed by our system can pull up a model,” she said. “Maybe it’s a 3D model of what he’s going to build, or maybe it’s the parts list of all the things he needs to install.”
The robot is operated by a local person who can be trained to use it within a day, Lau said.
“When I started the company, I was afraid that by building robots we would take away jobs and actually make it harder for people to work,” Lau said.
The opposite was the case.
“And now the unions are on board and actually teaching their members how to use Dusty robots,” Lau said. “We’ve partnered with the NorCal Carpenters’ Union and the Sheet Metal Workers’ Union Local 104 in our area, and those unions have created curriculum for Dusty training.”
This is leading to training being offered through unions in other parts of the U.S. “They really recognize that this is the future, and they want to support the new technology and get more people into the industry, rather than having the philosophy that they’re preventing technology from entering their industry,” Lau said. “And I think that’s a great thing, both for us and for them.”
In addition, technology from companies like Dusty Robotics is encountering growing and more complex challenges in construction. According to Lau, the company has so far built over 125 million square feet of buildings in North America for a variety of projects.
“We follow trends in the industry and we’ve noticed that we’re disproportionately chosen for more complex projects,” Lau said. “That’s because a data center or a hospital are really complex jobs and the number of machines that need to be packed into a very small space is very dense. So the layout is very important. If you move an inch, you won’t be able to fit all the racks you wanted to cram into your data center.”
In addition to the growth in artificial intelligence leading to more power-hungry data centers, Dusty Robotics is also working on building more post-COVID hospitals.
“In areas that do not have the right infrastructure, population growth is significantly higher. Therefore, there is a great need to create medical facilities to serve this new population,” Lau said.
A third growth category for the company right now is manufacturing, particularly industrial automation. “When you order from Amazon and get your delivery within two hours or the next day, imagine all the robots behind the scenes packing and shipping your packages,” she said. “These facilities use robotic automation, and the positioning of all these automated machines is very precise, so we are often tasked with the placement of these robotic systems.
Competition in this still small field of robot-assisted planning and surveying is increasing. Dusty Robotics’ competitors are established technology companies such as the hardware giant HPsaid Lau.
“This is a very healthy development for the industry because it means that bigger players are taking notice of us and that normalizes and validates the space. From our perspective, HP came to market last year with their site print solution and it’s not as good as ours. We are still the market leader. But it’s nice to say that there is a Fortune 500 vendor company that is also in our space.
“One of the things we noticed was that our sales pitches became a lot easier after HP came out, because before there was some concern that maybe this is something new and it won’t work. You know, ‘You’re just a startup. How long are you really going to be around?’ Then when HP came out, we thought, ‘Oh, OK. I guess this is a real thing. There’s a printer company that’s in this space.'”
Skanska’s Zulps agrees that the response to robotics and its use in construction planning and surveying has been extremely positive.
“It’s a different way of working, and we’re still figuring that out, but we’ve gotten some cool feedback,” Zulps said. “It requires more preparation up front, and projects may not be prepared for it. But we’re confident, ‘Wow, this thing is really accurate and we can trust it.’ So we’re on board. And also, we’ve introduced some of the technology to our company in Norway. They’ve embraced the technology, they can take it and run it, and they’re currently using several layout robots. They’re having great success with it.”
You can reach Philip Russo at [email protected].
