IBE Humanoids is building a consortium to develop Leo, a multi-skilled construction robot designed to support hazardous, repetitive and labour-intensive site tasks.
Robot-as-a-service model planned
Humanoid construction robots could be available to the industry at scale early in the next decade, under plans revealed by IBE Humanoids Founder Vassos Chrysostomou.
The proposed robot, named Leo, is being developed as a multi-tasking labour platform to support work that is hazardous, repetitive, physically demanding, undesirable or reliant on consistent monitoring outside normal working hours.
Chrysostomou, also Founder and Managing Partner of IBE Partnership, wants to establish a consortium of academics, construction leaders, software developers and hardware specialists to define, test and commercialise the platform.
He stressed that Leo is intended to augment, not replace, human judgement and responsibility.
“We want industry leaders to join us and inspire [Leo], define it, develop it, test it, take it apart, make it sure it works with [construction industry] processes and workflows, and on the projects to make sure that when the robot’s ready to go out on a construction site, it actually begins to add value from day one,” he said.
Funding and rollout
An advisory board will be formed to shape Leo’s development roadmap, with substantial capital investment required to bring the robot to market.
Chrysostomou said the development phase could draw on Innovate UK and EU funding, alongside in-kind industry support and tier-based monthly subscriptions.
He is targeting mass production “in 2030 onwards”, with Leo supplied as a service through subscription-based pricing that could be hourly, weekly, monthly, task-specific or output-specific.
The humanoid robot summit was supported by organisations including the National Federation of Builders, Cranfield University, University of Warwick, Constructionarium and Innovate UK, and attracted contractors including Mace, Laing O’Rourke and Baxall Construction.
Source: Construction Management
