b'TECHNOLOGY21st century. Its getting more and more expensive to build things, and construction can benefit by having the best tools, explains Ahmed. Although the complexities that humans can handle are still out of reach for robotics, smart machines are ideal in remote or dangerous environments and situations that require consistent repetitive tasks.Using Built Robotics systems, a human robotics equipment operator (REO) can program an excavator to dig a pipeline trench almost as simply as setting up a coffeemaker for the next morning. The robot will plan its path and start digging, says Ahmed. The REO can close their laptop and go on to the next jobsite. Onboard cameras and sensors ensure that the equipment will pause if it encounters an unexpected obstacle.One of the big benefits of software solutions is that the knowledge of one machine can be shared among all the machines, Ahmed adds. Each machine will learn its ownAs an example of an application with potential to develop AI, dataset, but then they will share it with all the others, whetherLipman names COMPASS, software that collects, organizes and youre in the U.S. or Australia. analyzes subcontractor data to help manage risk. COMPASS provides predictive analysis to enhance decision-making. In BUSINESS STRATEGY 2017, EllisDon provided COMPASS with seed capital and became Rosemarie Lipman is CIO and SVP of digital & data engineeringits first client. It has since been implemented by 11 Canadian with EllisDon Corporation. She holds that companies shouldgeneral contractors and eight in the U.S.implement technology with a clear connection to business strategy or purpose; we have to think about the problemsPeople say construction is pretty behind in digitization and we want to solve and what data contributes to the solutions,automation. AI and machine learning is a bit far out there. Many including the quality and quantity of data needed to leverageare still focusing on getting out of paperwork, but weve seen AI. For general contractors, I think unsupervised machinea huge adoption of technology, especially since COVID, says learning definitely has application in the office, in areas suchLengieza. What I ask them to do is not to ask whether I need to as scheduling and estimating [but] we will still need humanuse artificial intelligence and machine learning, but whether I can oversight and interpretation in the field. use digital tools to make me more efficient. BUILDERSDIGEST Quarter 1 202125'