Are Autonomous Mobile Robots Able to Take Over Construction? A Review

Although construction has been known as a highly complex application field for autonomous robotic systems, recent advances in this field offer great hope for using robotic capabilities to develop automated construction. Today, space research agencies seek to build infrastructures without human intervention, and construction companies look to robots with the potential to improve construction quality, efficiency, and safety, not to mention flexibility in architectural design. However, unlike production robots used, for instance, in automotive industries, autonomous robots should be designed with special consideration for challenges such as the complexity of the cluttered and dynamic working space, human-robot interactions and inaccuracy in positioning due to the nature of mobile systems and the lack of affordable and precise self-positioning solutions. This paper briefly reviews state-of-the-art research into automated construction by autonomous mobile robots. We address and classify the relevant studies in terms of applications, materials, and robotic systems. We also identify ongoing challenges and discuss about future robotic requirements for automated construction.