Top 5 Construction Industry innovations in 2022
Updated: May 31, 2022
Insight from Civils.ai founder Stevan Lukic
It might not be obvious, but 2022 has been a big year for the construction industry. Let’s take a look at five projects shaping up to change the construction industry at its core.
1. Tesla’s Optimus Project
Elon Musk’s announcement late last year that Tesla is developing their first fully automated humanoid caught many by surprise. Even more so for the construction industry who in 2022 are realising that one of Elon’s primary commitments for this robot is to develop it to replace humans in tiring, repetitive, or high risk work.
Construction projects tick all three of these boxes. Using the sensor and best in class AI technology developed for their cars, these robots are expected to be one of the smartest in the industry, with Boston Dynamics the only robotics company currently in direct competition. The most popular robot developed by Boston Dynamics, Spot, costs a hefty $70,000 meaning that there is a gap in the market for a low cost humanoid robot capable of replacing humans.
The robot which is expected to stand at 173 centimetres tall and weigh 57 kilograms is designed to be physically weaker than an average human, however, use of these robots could drastically speed up the construction process, allowing for a tireless workforce capable of handling risky situations.
2. Civils.ai Artificial Intelligence and construction data
Civil Engineers rely on accurate data to make their design predictions and assessments. To find this data most Engineer’s need to spend hours pouring through PDF’s and technical catalogues searching for references. Or resorting to Google search and not necessarily following the advice “don’t trust everything you read on the internet”.
Accurate design and planning of construction projects are important. Finding cost, duration, programme, engineering properties and technical data is needed for Engineer’s to make the right decision. Civils.ai is an open-source Civil Engineering analysis and data provider. They are digitising construction information and providing calculators to solve a Civil Engineer’s most commonly occurring issues. With calculators for geotechnical analysis such as bored and driven pile design, bearing capacity and retaining wall design Civils.ai has Geotechnical Engineer’s well covered.
Structural Engineers can perform frame analysis, steel section design and beam analysis. Tunnel Engineers can design tunnel linings and mining SCL design on the platform. Civils.ai provides free Civil Engineering design calculators and most of the code is open-source, with a community of Engineers from around the world working tirelessly to improve the platform.
The end game for Civils.ai is to provide the first artificial intelligence solution to the construction industry on the database of construction information they are building, allowing for parametric design and Civil Engineering automation.