Robotics and intelligent automation can reshape modular construction, and contribute to solving the global housing shortage, writes Gilles Retsin, co-founder and chief technology officer/chief architect at Automated Architecture
The global housing shortage is one of the most pressing issues of our time. In the US, the shortage of affordable homes has reached 7.3m, while the UK faces a backlog of 4.3m homes. The crisis extends worldwide, while at the same time the residential construction sector also contributes 14% of global CO2 emissions.
Despite the construction industry’s $10tn market size, it suffers from low productivity and inefficiency, costing the global economy $1.6tn annually according to data from McKinsey.
With interconnected challenges like housing supply, affordability and environmental impact, the need for innovative solutions in the construction sector is now more urgent than ever.
Although planning reforms are crucial to increasing housing supply, even with more streamlined processes, they will not be enough to address the sheer volume of homes needed.
The construction industry’s inefficiencies and rising labour shortages make it impossible to deliver the amount of homes required, at an affordable cost, while staying within strict carbon budgets.
A key factor exacerbating these challenges is the impending retirement of around 25%-30% of the construction workforce in the US and UK by 2040. In the UK alone, CITB estimates that an additional 224,900 workers will be required between 2023 and 2027 just to meet existing demand.
Robotics and automation: A new industrial model for modular construction
Offsite prefabrication and modular construction, often referred to as Modern Methods of Construction (MMC), were promoted as solutions to tackle productivity and labour shortages, but the past decade has proven that these methods are hard to implement and difficult to scale.
However, modular construction has struggled to scale. While it has succeeded in regions like Sweden, a series of high-profile failures in other markets reveals that it is not an easy-to-replicate solution.
A UK parliamentary inquiry found that modular construction and MMC are often more expensive than traditional methods, despite receiving substantial government backing. The collapse of firms like Ilke Homes and House by Urban Splash in the UK, along with international failures such as Katerra and Veev, underscores the need for a new industrial model capable of delivering affordable, sustainable housing at scale.
Modular construction faces two core challenges. First, it relies on large, centralised factories that are expensive to build and operate, making it difficult to reduce project costs.
Second, modular construction is most efficient with highly standardised products, but housing often requires customization and flexibility, which modular systems struggle to accommodate. Houses, unlike cars, are unique to their location and the specific needs of the project.
This is where robotics and intelligent automation offer a game-changing solution. Until recently, robotics were limited to single-task operations in assembly lines, but intelligent automation powered by AI is transforming what robots can do.
These “smart robots” can adapt to changing conditions and handle variability in production, which is crucial for construction. For example, a single robot can now produce different wall elements with varying depths, materials and openings without additional setup costs.
Intelligent automation therefore reduces the capital costs associated with robotic production lines. Where multiple single-task robots were once needed, a single robot can now handle multiple processes, reducing the size of production lines and, in return, the factory footprints.
This adaptability enables factories to scale more efficiently through “parallelisation” – a system where multiple robotic work cells handle tasks simultaneously, increasing output and reducing build times. By distributing production across multiple robotic work cells, factories can increase throughput without requiring massive, expensive assembly lines.
The rise of robotics and intelligent automation promises to reshape modular construction. Instead of large, centralised factories, we are likely to see the emergence of networks of smaller, distributed robotic factories. These adaptable, highly automated facilities can then be located closer to the communities they serve, reducing transportation costs and generating local jobs.
