Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto: Integrating Robots and Reality Capture by Jared Christman
Integration of robotics into reality capture has arrived in the construction industry. You can see it on projects where it is either walking on four legs or rolling around printing layout. Robotics is the next step in the construction technology revolution—SLAM and deck printing are a couple examples out there today. Take the robot called “Spot.” The Waltham, Mass.-based company has teamed up with Trimble, Westminster, Colo., to introduce the quadruped robot. Outfitted with a LiDAR scanner, Spot uses SLAM to autonomously navigate active job sites, capturing 3D data while avoiding obstacles in real time. According to reporting by Geo Week News, several contractors are using Spot for routine site documentation, progress tracking and as-built verification. This in turn is freeing up field staff for higher-value tasks. On a large social media tech campus project, Spot reduced manual photo documentation time by 60% and flagged several floor boxes that were misplaced compared to the model before slab pour, saving thousands in rework. Then there’s SitePrint by HP, Palo Alto, Calif. SitePrint is a robotic layout printer that uses SLAM to align with digital models and contract documents that accurately prints layout directly on the deck. Electrical contractors have begun using it for conduit paths, box locations, layout points and wall stub-outs. By combining SLAM-enabled robotics with BIM data, electrical contractors are simplifying the jump from design to field layout. Rather than replacing skilled labor, this technology streamlines it, which in turn frees up electricians to focus on running crews, installation, quality control and high-value tasks. Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto: Integrating Robots and Reality Capture – Electrical Contractor Magazine
Eighty percent of humans will engage with smart robots on a daily basis, and one in 20 supply chain managers will manage robots, rather than humans, by 2030, according to Gartner, Inc. Organizations are placing greater emphasis on enhancing the capabilities of their existing workforce by supplementing with robotics due to factors like labor scarcity and rising costs. Smart robots have been identified by chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) as an important investment area, though many acknowledge their organization lacks internal robotics expertise to maximally leverage these innovative technologies. While it won’t be necessary for supply chain managers to have the engineering skills required to build robots, they will need a general technical understanding of what the robots can do and how they work together with other robots and people. This knowledge will be crucial for understanding the business problems robots can reasonably address and provide this guidance to business leaders 
Hyundai celebrated the opening of its new $7.6 billion electric vehicle factory in Georgia on Wednesday by announcing plans to expand its production capacity by two-thirds to a total of 500,000 vehicles per year. The newly announced Georgia expansion is part of $21 billion in U.S. investments over the next three years that Hyundai announced at the White House. Hyundai began producing EVs just shy of six months ago at its sprawling manufacturing plant in southeast Georgia. More than 1,200 people are working there. Hyundai employees worked the assembly line alongside hundreds of robots that stamp sheets of steel into fenders and door panels, weld and paint auto bodies and even park finished vehicles awaiting their final inspections. 