6th Workshop on Future of Construction

The $10 trillion global construction industry has traditionally been labor-intensive, yet advances in artificial intelligence, robotics, and autonomous systems are creating new opportunities to transform how construction work is planned, performed, and monitored.

The transition from smart construction to Physical AI, where intelligent systems can perceive, reason, learn, and act in the physical world, has the potential to enable robots that operate more autonomously, adapt to changing environments, and work alongside construction workers. However, significant challenges remain, including high costs of adoption, safety and reliability concerns, limited training and knowledge about advanced robotics and AI, and the difficulty of deploying intelligent robots in dynamic, cluttered, and unpredictable construction environments.

To address these challenges, the 6th Workshop on Future of Construction will explore the emerging role of Physical AI in construction robotics and automation. The workshop will bring together researchers and industry practitioners to discuss advances in world models, foundation models, semantic SLAM, multimodal perception, and human–robot collaborative construction, with particular emphasis on translating recent advances into reliable, safe, and practical systems for real-world construction sites. It will provide a forum for academia and industry to exchange ideas, identify critical research challenges, and develop a shared vision for the next generation of intelligent and autonomous construction workplaces.

Construction robotics is moving rapidly from research prototypes toward commercial deployment, as shown by recent products for autonomous heavy equipment, construction layout, overhead drilling, and drywall finishing, and by growing industry and investor interest worldwide, including from South Korean companies. This workshop supports the ICRA 2027 theme “Forging an Ecosystem of Innovation: Building a Collaborative Robotics Community” by connecting robotics researchers, construction researchers, technology startups, students, and industry developers.

The full-day, in-person workshop will feature keynote presentations by distinguished speakers from academia and industry, industry lightning talks, spotlight papers, a poster session, the IronSite Challenge, breakout group discussions, and a panel discussion.