For decades, construction was a sector that progress forgot. Economist Austan Goolsbee, now president of the Chicago Federal Reserve, found that even as U.S. labor productivity steadily grew—up 290 percent, from 1950 to 2020—between 1970 and 2020, construction worker productivity fell 40 percent.
Whether a new generation of smart machines can break that long losing streak remains to be seen, but some industry observers are optimistic. From site surveying to maintenance, drones, robo-dogs, and other smart, mobile machines are beginning to change the way the world builds.
Robots and drones revolutionize planning, site prep, and maintenance
“Drones for surveying are super popular,” said Christoffer Heckman, an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and director of the university’s Autonomous Robotics and Perception Group.
High-end drones, such as the WingtraOne Gen II, are able to capture high-resolution aerial imagery that is processed by DroneDeploy or one of its competitors, transforming the images into 3-D terrain models that developers can use for feasibility studies.
Uncrewed ground vehicles are also being used for surveying and site preparation.
In Germany, drones and uncrewed vehicles are being deployed to spot unexploded bombs, according to Christian Janke, an associate professor specializing in uncrewed systems for the Worldwide Campus of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
With as much as 100,000 tons (90,000 mt) of unexploded World War II ordnance buried all over Germany—much of that tonnage on urban land—searching for bombs is a standard step in site preparation. At a high-risk site, magnetic measurement devices and ground-penetrating radar can be mounted on drones or uncrewed vehicles, which get sent out to do the inspection instead of people. “It’s faster and cheaper, definitely, and it is possible that it’s also safer,” Janke said.
Drones and ground robots are also proving valuable in the building phase. Dusty Robotics, for example, has a vehicle that can print floor plans directly onto concrete with a 16th of an inch (1.5875 mm) margin of error, eliminating the risk of mistakes arising from the lack of a single view of what to build.
Drones also aid in documentation by highlighting discrepancies before they become expensive errors. Four-legged robots, such as Boston Dynamics’ Spot, are being used to monitor ground-level progress. “This [model] can be equipped with a 360-degree camera and a laser scanner, so you can send [it] through the whole construction site every night [to] have very precise, time-based documentation on what happened when,” Janke said.
Some contractors set up systems that enable drones to keep an eye on a project all by themselves. “We’re seeing autonomous docked drones in the sky and quadrupedal or wheeled robots on the ground—fixed with 360 cameras and LiDAR—to create a living visual twin that updates itself in real-time,” said Matt Daly, CMO of DroneDeploy, a major provider of drone software for capturing and sharing aerial images, 3-D models, and jobsite measurements.
Meanwhile, back at the office, cloud-based project management systems that integrate data streams collected from the building site are making it easier for contractors to stay on schedule and within budget. “These tools improve coordination between the field and the office, streamline submittals and [requests for information], provide real-time visibility into schedules and budgets, and reduce delays caused by miscommunication and outdated information,” said Patrick Scarpati, director of construction technology and innovation for Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), the U.S. contractors’ trade association.
Such monitoring seems to be paying off. DroneDeploy estimates that regularly capturing site conditions can save $10,000 for every $1 million spent on construction. Savings come through design versus reality checks, earthworks quantification, travel cost reduction, schedule protection, and having an unbiased source of truth that stakeholders can agree on, according to Daly. Those automated eyes have an impact on insurance costs, as well: Daly said Shepherd Insurance found that the size and value of claims from stakeholders using DroneDeploy fell by 40 percent.
Nor does the usefulness of drones end once a building is complete. Drones equipped with thermal cameras, such as Flir, can also scan building façades and roofs to detect heat leaks, moisture intrusion, or insulation gaps invisible to the naked eye.
Of the new smart machines, drones have had the biggest impact on builders so far, according to Scarpati. “Drones are reshaping labor needs by shifting effort away from manual data collection toward digital analysis, coordination, and decision-making,” he said. Among other advantages, he noted that drones have been shown to provide more accurate site information more quickly, streamline documentation, enhance site-monitoring, and facilitate more precise progress verification and forecasting.
Tomislav Zigo—CEO of BEXEL USA, a construction management platform—is slightly less bullish about contractors’ new flying friend. “Is it changing construction? Probably not,” he said. “Does it have influence on how decisions are being made? Probably yes.”
Although Zigo believes that construction is too complex an activity for the addition of one new tool to make a major change, he noted that drones have definitely “accelerated the rate at which stakeholders get an insight in[to] what is going on with their projects.”
Affordable ground robots such as Unitree Go2 overcome construction site challenges
Despite progress being made, drone use remains limited. In the United States, the percentage of contractors using drones stands at 21 percent—roughly where it stood in 2022, according to ABC statistics.
Several factors have restrained the industry from adding more technology to its toolbox. Ground models took some time to perfect. “For a long time, the industry was testing ground robots that were too expensive and, frankly, too fragile for a muddy, dynamic construction site,” Daly said. “We’re finally seeing that change because of more nimble, cost-effective hardware, like the Unitree Go2 and others.”
Training is another limiting factor. Full-time focus might let someone learn to operate a survey drone in several weeks, but people typically spend much more time doing so.
Zigo points to the capability of an organization to process and interpret the data that drones collect as a crucial factor in the company’s success with drones, particularly if the company is building multiple projects simultaneously. “Walking the site faster—or flying the site faster—doesn’t necessarily mean that information collected in that way is making us more productive,” he said.
Some contractors may have held back out of concern over the devices’ degree of precision. In Zigo’s opinion, drones are not quite as precise as older surveying and documentation methods, but that also depends on the context. “The drone is slightly faster and cheaper, but does it give you the accuracy that you need?” he said. “I think the judgment is still out there.”
Zigo cited the difficulty that drones still have in monitoring internal spaces as another limiting factor.
The biggest obstacle may be financial, though. Drone and robo-dog prices can vary wildly; a single high-end model suitable for navigation can cost as much as $100,000. More importantly, a recent report by McKinsey that focused on the global construction sector’s productivity problem noted that low margins and tendering dynamics limit the amount which construction firms typically invest in technology. Forced to keep their capital investments down, construction companies spend less than 1 percent of revenues on IT—less than a third of the average spent in the automotive or aerospace sectors.
Eventually, however, economics will drive the use of drones and other robotic systems, Zigo argued. “We’re all facing a huge shortage of labor,” he explained. “One way or another, this shortage will have to be augmented through automation and robotics.”
ABC analysts believe the transition is already underway. “Adoption is expanding rapidly as tools become more affordable, easier to use, and clearly tied to measurable return on investment, enabling broader participation across the industry,” Scarpati said.
The future of robotics and automation on construction sites
Today’s flying drones and dog-bot ground monitors may soon be joined by other uncrewed machines.
Looking ahead, Heckman said he expects to see autonomous forklifts, bulldozers, and other types of heavy machinery on construction sites soon, as similar machines are already being rolled out on farms. Eventually, if humanoid robots are perfected, he said, a construction site may be one of the first places they are put to work.
Zigo said he has seen builders experiment with drywall finishing robots and rebar tying robots. Another novel use he witnessed is deploying robots to pre-frame walls for prefabricated housing.
Daly has a different killer app in mind: not robo-laborers but instead a robo-foreman. “The next frontier is having AI agents, like DroneDeploy’s Progress AI, that capture data while the crew sleeps, and by 7:00 a.m., the super has a punch list of exactly what needs to happen that day, based on actual progress,” he said.
Further into the future, Zigo imagines automated assembly lines brought close to the building site. “But then, the final touch will still be—probably for the foreseeable future—humans connecting the dots, finishing quality inspection . . . . I’m not saying that, five years from now, we’ll be lounging and robots are going to build everything.”
