- The construction industry is facing a crisis in finding skilled workers.
- A new company is raising millions of dollars around the idea that it turn regular construction machines automated for simple tasks through a kit.
- So far, the machines only handle some of the less-complex tasks on a construction site.
By 2030, analysts estimate that the global construction industry will be worth $8 trillion, with that growth being driven by the U.S., India, and China. Amidst the building rush, however, there has been a shortage of skilled workers.
A 2018 survey of 2,700 contractors, construction managers, builders, and trade contractors showed that nine out of 10 had trouble finding skilled workers. Enter Built Robotics, a San Francisco-based company that just raised $33 million in funding to fill that gap by turning equipment into robots.
Built doesn't make new construction equipment. Rather, it makes equipment that turns current construction equipment like excavators and bulldozers into smart machines. A Built robotics kit supplies an excavator with tools like Wi-Fi, lidar, and GPS.
"My dad was a carpenter and contractor, so I grew up around construction," Built founder and CEO Noah Ready-Campbell says on the company's website. "In high school I worked for him renovating old houses, then went to work at Google after college. When I first started Built, he told me I’d better learn to operate equipment before I tried to automate it, so I rented a Deere 135G excavator and dug a pond in my family’s back yard."
Of course, safety and precision are paramount in construction. Campbell emphasizes in a video produced by TechCrunch that Built can automate machines to do "more basic tasks on job sites, and you can use your more skilled guys to do the more finesse kind of jobs."
There are also several safety features built in, including an automatic stop button that would revert the machines back to their original dumb selves.
Construction is just one of many tasks that companies around the world are trying to automate. There are smart cars, of course, but also less well-known efforts, like sewing.
David Grossman is a staff writer for PopularMechanics.com. He's previously written for The Verge, Rolling Stone, The New Republic and several other publications. He's based out of Brooklyn.
