In today’s word, where population has reached 7.8 Billion and is estimated to reach 10 Billion by 2050, Earth would become smaller place to live. For catering the needs of society, we have to develop Big & Complex Infrastructure as well as smart & sustainable dwellings. To be prepared for such requirement, Construction Industry needs to adapt latest technologies to keep its foot with Industrial Revolution 4.0. If you look deeper in to it, Industry is experimenting many new technologies which will strengthen our decisions and productivity to deliver complex projects.
Currently, India is witnessing fast pace of construction in infra projects with many new technologies and equipments but if we would talk about buildings, we are still lacking to adapt new technologies. With new technologies developing in the world, we can surely work on setup where Homes and Building components will be made in a factory and it can be installed at site. Pre Fabrication & Modular Construction Technologies enable us to do this. Prefabrication is the practice of assembling components of a structure in a factory or other manufacturing sites, and transporting complete assemblies or sub-assemblies to the construction site where the structure is to be located. It reduces cost of on-site work and ensures quality. Consistent indoor environments of factories eliminate most impacts of weather on production.
Autonomous Construction Technology is another technology which is making a shift from Labors to Machines. By using Robotics and AI, many companies are developing tools and equipments which are automatic and can be used at site to make on-site work more productive.
3D printing is the computer-controlled sequential layering of materials to create three-dimensional shapes. There are a variety of 3D printing methods used at construction scale, these include the following main methods: extrusion (concrete/cement, wax, foam, and polymers), powder bonding (polymer bond, reactive bond, sintering) and additive welding. It enables construction to be undertaken in harsh or dangerous environments not suitable for a human workforce such as in space. For Making small and compact Homes this is reducing time by almost 70%. It is very useful for catering Mass Population.
Many Companies and researchers are now making Advanced Building Material which are economical, highly durable and are faster in execution. Soon 60-70% of all building Material which we are using today will change to more productive alternative.
Imagine Driverless Equipments and Machines which can be controlled sitting far away from site improving productivity and efficiency. Now Wireless Monitoring & Connected Equipment technology are making their way forward. One of the biggest Construction Equipment Manufacture has successfully tested First Driverless Truck.
When it comes to Design and making, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality is allowing Customers to walk and feel the Project before they hit the Ground. It improves decision and gives you power of Imagination. Building Information Modeling is another Great Technology which is giving new wings to design. It is making your Physical Building into a Digital Model to use it with Other Technologies. 3D Scanning & Photogrammetry using Laser scan & LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) Technology is helping converting New & existing buildings into Manageable 3D Models. It is strengthening BIM and AR VR Technologies. We in Manomav is doing extensive R&D to combine all this technologies to use it for construction phase of building and delivering a product which can help Managers for better supervision.
Along with these Technologies, software are now in the market which can be used for Cloud based Real time Collaboration of all digital data. It is enabling different Teams to work together and achieve common Project Goals. Companies are making it an integrated, collaborative suite of finance, operations and project management applications for contractors and capital project owners. Microsoft is also developing wearable headsets which combines data and details with virtual reality.
Big Data & Predictive Analysis is another technology which is now touching construction industry. Each Construction Project generates a lot of data from Initial to Closure phase. All the learnings and outputs can be used in Future for various purpose. Big Data & Predictive Analysis helps to collect this data, prepare Models for Analysis and then using it on New Designs and Projects. This will help in Predictive Analytics for taking better and informed decisions, Waste Estimation and possible outputs.
All these technologies are going to play a vital role in future. Companies and professionals in Construction have to line up with this new trend to stand firm in this changing era. This will only enable us to cater such a huge demand of future. When we talk specific about India, there is a big age gap between people who is selecting career in construction field. At every other Project, you can find mix of very young and very old professionals. This gap poses a challenge to adapt these new technologies. Even in Manomav we are facing the similar challenge while working on almost all above technologies. All I can say at last is famous quote of George Bernard Shaw “Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”
About the Author
The Director at Manomav Engineers, Antriksh Tawar is an IIT Delhi alumni. He prominently handles the R&D operations of the company for new technologies which can be executed at construction projects. Antriksh has a vast experience in the field of Management and Building Information Modeling. He has been a part of various projects such as Chandigarh International Airport, Safdarjung Hospital Project, Government Housing Development project in Noida & Ghaziabad and OPGC Merry Go Round Railway Corridor Project.
