4th Workshop on Future of Construction: Safe, Reliable, and Precise Robots in Construction Environments

May, 2025 Atlanta, USA

Overview

The $10 trillion global construction industry has traditionally been a labor-intensive industry, yet it stands to benefit from autonomous robots that promise to deliver construction work that is more accurate and efficient compared to manual or conventional methods. However, the integration of automation and robotic technology into the construction workplace is faced with significant barriers including high cost of entry, safety concerns, inadequate training and knowledge about robotics, and poor performance of robots in dynamic, cluttered and unpredictable environments such as construction sites.

To tackle these challenging issues, this workshop aims to facilitate discussion on technology that will enable advanced robotics for future construction workplaces with an emphasis on robust perception and navigation methods, learning-based task and motion planning, and safety-focused robot-worker interactions. In line with the ICRA's theme, this workshop will provide a venue for academics and industry practitioners to create a vision for robotics in construction work and ensure equitable participation in planning for the future of construction workplaces. The full-day workshop will feature presentations by distinguished speakers from both industry and academia as well as interactive activities in the form of a SLAM challenge, poster sessions, debate, and panel discussions

The workshop will be held as a hybrid event, and the session will be live-streamed to an online audience. All participants (in-person or online) must register for the workshop and tutorial through the ICRA registration page.

Workshop Papers

This workshop will solicit contributions in two tracks: (i) the Paper Track and (ii) the Poster-only Track.

Paper Track: This track consists of contributed papers that constitute novel, original research in construction robotics or closely related fields. Contributed papers cannot take the form of an existing paper that is published or under review. Contributed papers should be in the form of extended abstracts (about 3-4 pages in ICRA paper format, including references). Authors are encouraged to also submit an optional 2-3 minute video presentation of their paper if their work involves visualization, robot operation etc. The accepted contributed papers will be made publicly available on the workshop website. In addition, authors of accepted papers will be invited to publish their papers with The International Association for Automation and Robotics in Construction (IAARC), though this is optional for authors who wish to publish at other venues. In this case, these papers will receive DOI numbers and be made permanently available through the IAARC website.

Poster-only Track: This track consists of posters that can be either based on a prior publication or novel work. Authors with an original paper may submit it to both tracks (paper and poster). Accepted posters will be presented during the poster session on the day of the workshop in the hallway outside the conference room. Authors are expected to print out and bring their own posters to the workshop, though poster boards will be provided. Poster boards are A0 format (841 mm x 1189 mm) in portrait orientation. There is no specific template for the posters. You should choose the format that best represents your research work.

Submissions can be made through this Google Form, where the paper or poster can be uploaded in PDF format. Deadlines given below are in Anywhere on Earth Time. Questions regarding the paper submission should be directed to chenjingdao@cse.msstate.edu.

Camera-ready paper submissions can be made through this Google Form.

Paper/Poster Submission Deadline: TBA

Paper/Poster Acceptance Notification: TBA

Camera Ready Paper Deadline: TBA


If you require an early decision notification due to having to apply for a visa, please contact chenjingdao@cse.msstate.edu


The topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Safe human-robot collaboration in construction tasks
  • Manipulation, path planning, navigation in dynamic and cluttered environments
  • Robust perception algorithms in cluttered and unstructured environments
  • Collaborative automation technology for heavy construction equipment
  • Automation in construction logistics
  • Wearable robotics / exoskeleton for construction workers
  • Drone technology for construction applications

Best research awards

Submitted papers (Paper Track only) will be considered for the best research awards based on technical merit, originality, and potential impact on the field. Winners will be announced along with the NSS Challenge winners during the day of the workshop. Best research award winners will also be invited to give a 10-minute presentation on their paper during the workshop.

NSS Challenge

Nothing Stands Still 2025 Challenge: HILTI and the Gradient Spaces group from Stanford University are announcing the new Nothing Stands Still 2025 Challenge to tackle the critical task of seamlessly integrating progress scans from various stages of construction. Specifically, the challenge targets the task of multiway spatiotemporal 3D point cloud registration of data collected over time at construction sites. The goal of the challenge is to achieve a global spatiotemporal map of 3D point clouds collected at any time and location at the same construction scenes, as the latter evolve. The challenge website may be accessed here.

  • Challenge Starts: TBA
  • Challenge Ends: TBA
  • Prize for the winner: TBA
  • Prize for the runner-up: TBA


Speakers

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Program

09:00 AM

Workshop introduction and opening remarks

09:05 AM

Invited speaker

09:30 AM

Invited speaker

09:55 AM

Coffee break | Poster session

10:20 AM

Poster session + poster competition

10:45 AM

Contributed paper presentations

11:15 AM

Invited speaker

11:40 AM

Invited speaker

12:05 AM

Industry roundtable

12:30 PM

Lunch break

01:30 PM

NSS challenge results

01:50 PM

NSS challenge winner presentations

02:20 PM

Invited speaker

02:45 PM

Invited speaker

03:05 PM

Coffee break

03:30 PM

Breakout groups mini-roundtable

04:00 PM

Panel discussion

Organizers

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Dr. Jingdao Chen

Mississippi State University

(Primary Contact Person) chenjingdao@cse.msstate.edu

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Dr. Yong K. Cho

Georgia Institute of Technology

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Dr. Inbae Jeong

North Dakota State University

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Dr. Chen Feng

New York University

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Dr. Liangjun Zhang

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Dr. Maurice Fallon

University of Oxford

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Michael Helmberger

HILTI

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Kristian Morin

XYZ Reality

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Borja García de Soto

NYU Abu Dhabi

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Iro Armeni

Stanford University

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Xi Wang

Texas A&M University

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Ci-Jyun Liang

Stony Brook University

Sponsors


This workshop is made possible thanks to the generous sponsorship of the following organizations:


We would like to acknowledge the support of the following RAS Technical Committees: