Across nearly every industry, business leaders and tech experts are looking to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) technology to meaningfully improve the way they operate. At Gilbane, AI technology is already delivering significant improvements to project documentation, safety monitoring, problem solving, cost and schedule savings, and more.
Through a partnership with Nextera Robotics, Gilbane is deploying AI-powered robots on its 17-story, 400,000 SF state-of-the-art pediatric biomedical research building project – Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s (CHOP’s) Morgan Center for Research and Innovation. Recently, Gilbane senior project executive, Ryan Spotts, shared his insights on the technology and how it has become a game changer for this project and additional work in Gilbane’s project pipeline.
What are some of the biggest challenges you face in life sciences construction specifically?
In the life sciences space, speed, quality, and safety are the name of the game. It’s such a fast-moving and highly competitive market, and there are intense speed-to-market demands and stringent safety and quality requirements. At CHOP’s Morgan Center for Research and Innovation, life-saving medicines and advanced medical devices will be designed, developed and tested in these spaces, so it is critical that every detail in construction is taken into account. From capabilities for microbiome-based medicine to brain research in development, genetics, and engineering, this space is designed to encourage scientific collaboration and accelerate the pace of discovery. Because of that, this project and others like it must adhere to strict regulatory standards, and it’s our job at Gilbane to maintain the highest levels of safety and quality. Because of demands for speed and quality, AI technologies help us ensure we can stay on schedule and deliver the level of quality construction our clients expect.
What do the AI-powered robots do on CHOP’s Morgan Center for Research and Innovation construction site?
Nextera’s robots have helped us greatly improve efficiency on CHOP’s Morgan Center for Research and Innovation project. Robots autonomously inspect the jobsite and continuously capture photos of the site to create a digital repository of images of the project. These photos can be accessed via an easy-to-use database that features project documentation, progress monitoring, quality control and other data collection. With this database, users can easily see how a project is coming along on any given day and compare it to images captured days, weeks, months, or even years ago. Not only can Gilbane get a quick overview of the project’s real-time status, but so too can the client and the design team. This gives all relevant stakeholders the option to evaluate progress and make rapid decisions or changes that won’t require the need for time-consuming and costly on-site walk throughs. The robots can also be programmed to analyze images for identification and prevention of potential issues, including unsafe site conditions, improper PPE usage, progress delays, rework, and more.
Automating these tasks frees up valuable time for project teams to address more technical and strategic issues that can be redirected to enhance project outcomes and drive further innovation.
How do the AI-powered robots navigate a construction site?
The robots can make their way around a construction site with relative ease – either during the day when work is occurring or even at night and off-hours when construction is done for the day. The robot has onboard hardware and technology, including the same type of LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technology featured in autonomous vehicles, which uses laser beams to measure distances and create detailed 3D models of the site. With this technology, the robots can drive around a project site while avoiding objects and not slipping downstairs or falling off the floor of a building.
There are two types of robots – one with tracks that can climb upstairs and one with wheels that can roll around a project site and even get into a material hoist.
At the end of each robot’s battery life, which lasts about six hours, the robot returns to its docking station to rest and charge up for its next excursion.
Are the AI-powered robots capable of being customized to the specific requirements and/or goals of a project or construction site?
The AI technology in the robots is highly customizable to meet the unique demands of any project. With our work on CHOP’s Morgan Center for Research and Innovation, for example, our partners at CHOP were concerned about risks of windblown rain on certain floors causing pooled water. So, the robots were programmed to identify pooled water so it can be quickly addressed and eliminated by workers on site to minimize risk to construction quality and potential slip-and-fall injuries. These types of adjustments to the robots’ programming can lead to significant cost and schedule savings over the lifetime of the project.
How else does this technology help Gilbane deliver cost savings and added value to its partners and clients?
At the Morgan Center, the AI-powered robots have helped Gilbane to deliver cost and schedule savings to CHOP, including: :
- Accelerating site documentation, saving time and cost
- Boosting our problem-solving capabilities by freeing up time for site leaders to focus on more critical tasks
- Enhancing safety by identifying potential safety issues, reducing the risk of missed time and excess cost for worker injuries
- Improving scheduling and timelines by helping to assess more quickly where any work may be at risk of delay
“Unlocked time” is one of the big benefits of these AI-powered robots that you’ve mentioned. What does that mean exactly?
The AI technology in Nextera’s robots allows us to automate some of the more routine tasks we encounter on the job site, allowing our teams to focus on addressing some of the more complex challenges. Specifically on the CHOP project, our team has leveraged this “unlocked time” to:
- Manage the logistics of a tight, urban site more effectively
- Identify new approaches to accelerate the project delivery schedule
- Create an intentional supplier diversity strategy, resulting in more than 50% diverse participation with this project
- Coordinate a complex curtainwall system
- Engage with the community through quarterly service events
Any time saved on routine work allows us to spend our brain power on the more challenging work of technically complex facilities, as well as accelerating schedules, building a better workforce and more meaningfully partnering with the community to ensure our work is a win for everyone involved. We’re excited about the future potential of AI technology to allow us to deliver even better outcomes for all of our clients.
If you want to learn even more, you can find Ryan presenting at the ISPE Delaware Valley Chapter Annual Symposium & Exhibition in Philadelphia, PA, on May 28 or at the ASHE Innovation Conference in Columbus, OH, on July 28.
