Grant: Alliance Grants

Canadian construction industry generates about 141 billion to the economy annually, accounting for 7.5% of Canada's gross domestic product (GDP). Yet, the construction industry is facing many significant challenges, including skilled workers and innovation, leading to low efficiency, and very high labor and equipment cost. This research focuses on revolutionizing the construction industry by implementing state-of-the-art smart automated artificial intelligence (AI)-driven digital construction using Rogers 5G network. Specifically, a state-of-the-art digital construction control and management platform utilizing Rogers 5G network will be developed, where full-scale cranes will be automated using AI, advanced control and sensing algorithms already developed by the research team, while all information such as the location of the structural and non-structural components (either in the factory, during transportation, or in the construction site), availability and condition of the labour and machine will all be fully monitored and managed through the Rogers 5G network. This way, resources can be fully utilized, and the delay incurred during different phases of construction can be reduced. Currently, there are some other small-scaled robots used for construction. However, these studies are usually limited to simple tasks such as attaching floor tiles or wall painting. The proposed research will be the first-of-its-kind in the world to fully automate full-scale mobile cranes capable of lifting full-scale structural components on a construction site.