Assignment B1 - Taryn Francischetti - A-Team

The future is not far off. Many people argue that we are already living in it. Technology is advancing faster than ever. Futurist Thomas Frey argues that things such as artificial intelligence and software embedded in all things will be common place ten years from now [1]. This is going to be a major factor on the building industry if machines will be building the building itself.

Software has already been produced such as the video that shows the video of SAM, the bricklaying robot, working with a mason on site [2]. Robots with AI intelligence such as SAM greatly increase safety on job sites. SAM can do many real time calculations to ensure that all bricks will be placed in the exact same way. The building will have very few errors in construction, if there are any at all, due to the consistency of a robot's work. This variability will be even further reduced if the robot is able to learn through artificial intelligence. For example, MIT researchers have created a new AI system where the machine learns in real time such as the way a human can research the answer to a question [3]. This allows the robot to quickly solve a problem that could be encountered during the building process.

AI can also be used for other things than just building. It can also be used for building inspections such as the robot that does building inspections [4]. This could make building inspections in hazardous conditions much safer. With AI, the robot could easily document the problem and even suggest ways to fix it. Eventually, the robot could be able to deal with a problem all the way from diagnosis to repair. This would be able to ensure worker safety as the robot would make it so human beings are not being put in harms way. The only down side of AI on job sites is the loss of jobs. Many people would have to be retrained to maintain the robot or learn something new completely. The robots on the job site will eventually be able to complete buildings very quickly and humans could become almost obsolete. This was already done on many production things such as the assembly lines for cars.  The future of buildings becomes a very intriguing place as AI becomes more and more popular. There are pros and cons for robots but the future of these being common place is not far off.

References
[1] http://www.futuristspeaker.com/business-trends/72-stunning-things-in-the-future-that-will-be-common-ten-years-from-now-that-dont-exist-today/?nocache=1

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYo4PAWRIHE

[3] http://www.kurzweilai.net/a-machine-learning-system-that-trains-itself-by-surfing-the-web

[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycWStiPjQU0

Comments
Ronald Herazo - I did not know that wireless connections were being worked on such as WiGig. If large amounts of data could wirelessly be transferred, it would greatly increase productivity on job sites. Laptops work fairly well but many of them are not able to complete, or connect to, databases without being wired. I've also only every considered perceptual computing to be a thing of the future. It would be amazing if hand gestures were incorporated into computer-user interface within the next ten years. His post can be found here.

Christopher Sager - I disagree that the future of drones being able to decipher buildings and being able to put a building together. Drone technology has come very far in the last few years. For example, drones are now able to fly places based off of photo recognition and fly without a person controlling it. Technology is probably not too far off for the drone to be able to fly a component of a building and put it in place. Granted, there may have to be more than one type of drone to complete the task such as one acting as a crane and one welding but with time, fewer robots will be needed as their software becomes more and more intelligent. His post can be found here.

Nick Pawlikowsi - I found the section on the steel 3D printing robot very fascinating. It is extremely advantageous for the building materials to be produced and assembled on site, let alone at the same time. Many costs decrease such as production and specifically transportation costs of the materials. This would also help further in the construction of the building as multiple components could easily be assembled together instead of separate pieces having to be assembled after the fact. There has been more than one instance where shop drawings were misinterpreted and building failure has occurred. His article can be found here.