140 years ago, the invention of the steel‑framed building became the catalyst that fundamentally reshaped the cities we have today. By separating structure from enclosure, it enabled buildings to be taller, densities to increase, and the urban forms we see today emerge. However, since that breakthrough, the fundamental way buildings are assembled has changed little. Today, rising construction costs, labour shortages, and a deepening housing crisis create the drivers for another critical inflection point. A comparable step change, driven by robotics, artificial intelligence, and computational design, is now upon us. By redesigning buildings as scalable systems suited to robotic assembly, human–robot teaming has the potential to once again transform construction, delivering housing that is faster, more affordable, and more sustainable.

The recent development in artificial intelligence has significantly enhanced the development of robotics, especially the applications of robots in the construction industry. This talk will present the vision and related research and development activities on the recent development of robotics enabled by artificial intelligence, especially in the areas of robotic system, sensor integration, and human/robot collaborations. The goal is to develop theoretical foundations as well as implementation schemes for robots to increase their efficiency, reliability and safety, and to achieve a robust and intelligent system performance. The challenges and opportunities in the development of robotic technology and applications in the construction will be discussed.

A practical industry perspective on the future of construction robotics and why Human–Robot Teaming is emerging as a critical pathway to safer, more resilient and scalable automation. Drawing on real-world infrastructure challenges, this session explores variability, material imperfections and exception handling, and explains why Human–Robot Teaming is a more practical model than rigid autonomy.

This talk explores how advanced data-driven technologies and robotic systems are reshaping the construction and infrastructure sectors. Dr Jun Wang will first introduce their current research on data intelligence, including MetaBIM and InfraX, which enable the transformation of fragmented project data into structured, actionable insights to support informed decision-making across the asset lifecycle. This talk will then showcase a series of industry collaborations: with Main Roads Western Australia on intelligent road asset management and drone-based bridge inspection; with BGC on developing robotic arm systems for automated fabrication of precast concrete panels with brick inlay; and with Alex Fraser on robotic solutions for construction waste sorting on moving conveyor systems. Together, these projects demonstrate the emerging integration of data intelligence and robotics in driving productivity, safety, and sustainability in the built environment.

Human-Robot Teaming (HRT) combines the strengths of humans (e.g., perception, decision-making, experience, uncertainty handling, creativity, team intelligence) with the strengths of robots (e.g., power, speed, accuracy, consistency, endurance). It includes human-robot collaboration, cooperation, and co-existence. HRT can be single-human with single-robot and/or multi-humans with multi-robots teaming. However, applying HRT to construction faces unique barriers that are not present in other sectors. When these challenges are addressed appropriately, HRT can bring about huge benefits to the construction sector in terms of safety, productivity, workforce retention, sustainability, resilience, and more. The talk explores these topics related to HRT in construction (challenges, benefits, objectives, etc.) and presents various projects carried out at UTS as case studies.