Shimizu, one of Japan’s largest contractors, is conducting field trials of humanoid robots controlled by AI on construction sites in response to severe labour shortages and to boost productivity.
The robots are tasked with inspecting sites with cameras and sensors.
A humanoid robot was deployed at the Tokiwabashi Project, due to become the country’s tallest building.
It can navigate the site at one metre per second with a camera following a pre-designated route.
The company claims the machines can perform multiple tasks, not just repetitive functions, and that they will learn to paint from human workers.
Shinichi Sakamoto, deputy general manager of Shimizu’s construction technology division, said: “I think these robots, which are designed to operate autonomously and make their own decisions at a construction job site, are a completely new phenomenon.
“We have developed robots for construction job sites in the past at Shimizu, but those robots required human supports to move.
“The quality of the construction tasks they performed needed a lot of adjustments and reworking, so many said that a person could do it faster with less reworking, and none of these robots still exist today.”
Shimizu is working with Sony and other companies as technical partners.
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