A U-M graduate student operates a KUKA robot similar to the ones used in Carol Menassa’s robot apprentice research. The $2M project aims to enable robots to learn from and cooperate with human construction workers. Image credit: Robert Coelius
A U-M graduate student operates a KUKA robot similar to the ones used in Carol Menassa's robot apprentice research. The $2M project aims to enable robots to learn from and cooperate with human construction workers. Image credit: Robert Coelius With the aim of enabling robots to learn from human partners on construction sites, the National Science Foundation is providing $2 million to a University of Michigan-led research team. Robots are anticipated to make the global construction industry safer and more attractive to workers, easing a worker shortage in the U.S. For decades, construction has been one of the most dangerous and least efficient human endeavors. It lags far behind other parts of the economy in productivity and struggles to attract workers to jobs that are often perceived as backbreaking. In collaboration with the University of Florida and Washington State researchers from U-M's College of Engineering and Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning hope to change that. Carol Menassa , the lead principal investigator of the research team and an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at U-M, explains that using automation and robotics on construction sites is critical if construction is to benefit from the productivity gains that have reshaped other industries, like manufacturing.
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