How Construction Robots Could Solve Canada's Housing Crisis and Then the World's

Robots that build houses sound like science fiction. Yet a startup from Toronto aims to make this futuristic idea a reality within 2022, using advances in automation, advanced manufacturing, cloud computing and artificial intelligence. 

In 2019, Ramtin Attar (former technology director at a multinational tech company) and Reza Nasseri (CEO of Landmark Homes) founded Promise Robotics. The company aims to bring new technologies to home construction to tackle the industry's biggest challenge: meeting growing demand for housing amid a growing shortage of affordable homes. 

"Our vision is really focused on using new technologies that will allow the industry to get better. <…> Basically, we are dealing with an industry that ranks second on the list of the least digitized, yet it is hugely important to our lives," said Ramtin Attar, CEO of Promise Robotics. 

Why the construction industry is falling behind

Computer technologies have already penetrated the financial and manufacturing industries, but the construction sector lags in adopting the latest technologies, including robotics and artificial intelligence. According to a 2017 report by the McKinsey Global Institute, productivity in construction lags behind other industries. 

Labor productivity growth in construction has averaged 1% per year over the last 20 years. By comparison, productivity in manufacturing grew by 3.6%. By adopting new technologies, the construction industry could add $1.6 trillion (2% of the global economy) to the $10 trillion in economic activity it generates. 

According to data from the Canadian Construction Association, the construction industry in Canada generates economic activity worth about $141 billion per year and employs 1.4 million people. However, the country and the industry face two challenges: a shortage of affordable housing and of skilled labor. 

A recent report from Scotiabank states that Canada has the lowest number of housing units per 1,000 residents among all G7 countries. After the coronavirus pandemic, demand for housing, especially single-family homes, increased, and mortgage rates hit record lows amid lagging supply, which reduced affordability. 

The construction industry is struggling to keep up, already facing a shortage of skilled workers, and the situation will only get worse. Despite a projected 6% rise in construction jobs by 2030, 250,000 people from the current workforce may retire.

Companies such as Promise Robotics offer short-term and long-term solutions to both problems. 

What Promise Robotics builds

The company offers a new approach to modular construction that is already gaining momentum. Rather than relying on automation (such as robotic equipment) and human capital, Promise Robotics is building a fully automated factory that can produce wooden frame components for homes, walls and roofs that can be easily delivered and installed. 

Artificial intelligence is central to the project, creating smart robots capable of performing multiple tasks. Robots are simply machines that can be made smart with software. Promise Robotics' robots can learn many tasks: selecting and gripping materials, determining their size and cutting them, and then assembling the parts together. 

Another important aspect of Promise Robotics: the factories will be scalable and able to operate near construction sites, which benefits housing construction in remote areas. Two large robots will make many decisions under cloud software control. The company has a strong reputation worldwide as a leader in AI. 

Promise Robotics already has a factory in the early stages that in 2021 will be able to produce construction components. Once fully developed, the advanced manufacturing platform will be able to build homes significantly faster, resulting in 40% cost savings compared to existing methods. 

For example, for a single-family home, traditional framing requires three to four people and three to four weeks, depending on complexity. Promise Robotics aims to do the same in one to two days.

Challenges and prospects of Promise Robotics technology

The challenge with these technologies is scaling them to the point where the high cost of implementation makes them economical. It is easier to introduce automation in the automotive sector, because you start earning money on a million-unit product coming off the assembly line. No such scale exists in housing construction. 

Promise Robotics aims to make its technology cost-effective so that its flexible factories can serve even small builders. Ramtin Attar notes: "We can have much smaller, flexible systems that are easy to set up and do not require a lot of infrastructure. You can take a small warehouse, set it up and start assembling components." 

If successful, Promise Robotics' technology could be exported, just like prefabricated home components made in Canada, to meet demand not only domestically but worldwide. This could completely reshape how homes are designed and built.