TOKYO -- General contractor Obayashi has developed robots that it will use as early as fiscal 2015 to examine foundation excavation work when constructing buildings, in response to a shortage of skilled workers in Japan.
At present, large numbers of workers with foundation examination skills are assigned to work sites and rely on their instincts to estimate foundation hardness while using special equipment to install pipes. Robots would be able to instantly grasp a foundation's condition using sensors and automatically adjust excavation speed.
