Around thirty companies and organisations, primarily from the Basque construction cluster – Build:Inn – and the Basque Robotics and Automation Association – Robotekin – took part in a collaborative workshop on the design of new products and processes involving robotics and advanced digitalisation in the construction sector.
The event, which took place at the Robotory located at Robotekin’s headquarters, was opened by its director, Leire Balzategui, and the managing director of Build Inn, Marta Epelde, who emphasised the importance of pooling synergies to better integrate the various existing technologies in the construction sector.
Rubén Martínez de Rituerto, project manager at Build:Inn, the Basque Construction Cluster, opened the event and outlined the current situation facing the construction sector, which is under pressure from a shortage of skilled labour, environmental requirements and rising costs. This situation necessitates increased productivity through changes to construction processes. How? Through on-site automation, industrialised manufacturing, advanced digitalisation or human-robot collaboration, for example.
Martínez de Rituerto presented the Robotics project, an initiative of the Elkartek programme funded by the Basque Government, which aims to promote the effective integration of robotic technologies into real-world construction and manufacturing processes. The project seeks to position the Basque Country at the European forefront of the sector, bridge the gap in data use and management, and validate solutions in real-world environments through pilot projects and technology demonstrators.
For his part, Andoni Amurrio, a researcher at Ikerlan (a partner of Robotekin), also agreed with Martínez de Rituerto that, whilst highly advanced technology currently exists worldwide, the key lies in knowing how to integrate it into the construction sector. During his presentation of the Robocons project (funded by the European Commission), he pointed out that construction is one of the least digitised industries and one with the highest resource requirements, whilst outlining the technological pillars, prototypes and use cases they are currently working on.
The third professional to present his Robotics and Automation projects was Endika Etxebarria, Commercial Director of Inser Robótica (a partner of Robotekin), who explained how they have already automated many work processes in construction factories, enabling progress to be made on ‘on-site’ automation systems at building sites.
Tras la exposición llegó el turno para que las personas asistentes de empresas, start-ups, centros tecnológicos, centros de formación y otros agentes del clúster y de la asociación participasen en el taller para abordar dos misiones tecnológicas: la robotización avanzada para la rehabilitación y la integración del robot- BIM en la automatización industrializada.
Build:Inn y Robotekin quieren agradecer a sus socios y socias la participación activa en el taller, planteando retos y contribuyendo a identificar posibles soluciones que permitan integrar distintas tecnologías y ponerlas al servicio del sector de la construcción.
Getting Together
