SINGAPORE — The robots are taking over — they could be painting and plastering walls for about half the Build-To-Order (BTO) projects built from 2025, and soon, these machines could even be conducting inspection and remote supervision works.

Using robots is part of efforts by HDB to improve productivity and safety at construction sites, said Senior Minister of State for National Development Tan Kiat How on Oct 23.

Speaking at the Housing Board’s professional engagement and knowledge-sharing forum at HDB Hub, he said that about half of new BTO sites will progressively tap robots for painting and some plastering from 2025. He said adopting robotics and automation tools will allow workers to be trained for higher-order tasks.

The plans are part of HDB’s drive to improve overall productivity at public housing construction sites by 40 per cent by 2030. As at 2021, 26.2 per cent of that target had been achieved, HDB said previously.

The upcoming roll-out of robots at BTO sites will be done progressively, and follows 10 trials of such robots conducted across several BTO sites since 2023. These trials have yielded positive outcomes, said HDB.

For instance, an architectural finishing robot at a BTO site in Yishun North has improved trade productivity — defined as the amount of physical output per man-hour — by up to 30 per cent. The two-year trial of the robot started in August 2023.

The robot, which is capable of painting, plastering and sanding, has sensors to plan its route around the construction site and navigate tight corners while applying finishing works on interior surfaces like walls and ceilings.

Speaking to architects, engineers, builders and solution providers at the forum, Tan said contractors who are unfamiliar with these robots will be given support by HDB. The agency will partner suppliers to offer robots with painting and plastering functions on term contracts at competitive prices.

“We hope that this will make advanced technologies more affordable for our contractors, and accelerate the process of identifying, onboarding and deploying suitable robots at our BTO sites,” added Tan.

HDB did not say how efficient these robots are compared with human workers, but Toh Chee Boon, deputy managing director of Hi-Tek Construction, said two painting robots used by his company at a MacPherson BTO site since the start of 2024 have improved productivity by more than three times.

"One worker can manage up to three to four robots with a tablet, so this means the workers have more time to do other tasks. The robot also offers much better workmanship, because the spray is very controlled," he said.

Toh intends to purchase more robots developed by Chinese tech firm Legend Robot — they cost $120,000 each — for use at other BTO sites his company is working on. One of these robots takes about 90 minutes to paint a four-room flat, said the robots' local distributor, TOT Construction, adding that such a job would normally take three workers 70 minutes to complete.

In his speech, Tan also cited HDB’s Construction Transformation Project (CTP) as another example of how the agency is working with contractors to use technology to make BTO worksites safer and more productive.

Launched in 2022 to take the HDB closer to its 2030 productivity target, the CTP aims to achieve a 25 per cent improvement in construction productivity at two BTO projects, Garden Waterfront I & II @ Tengah, where works began in February 2023.

HDB and construction company Obayashi Singapore have been piloting an autonomous crane and advanced sensors that allow conventional cranes to work closer together at the two Tengah projects.

During a media visit to the Tengah projects on Oct 17, the autonomous tower crane was seen lifting precast components to where they were needed.

An operator in a cabin at the top of the crane would first manually control the machine to lift a precast component before another worker on the ground makes a selection on a tablet to indicate where the component should go.

Then the robot takes over, moving the precast piece to the correct part of the residential block. Another device rotates and aligns the component before it is manually lowered for final installation.

The Tengah projects also use crane machine guidance technology, which equips conventional cranes with a suite of sensors that alerts operators if two cranes are too close together.

Allowing multiple cranes to operate closer to one another speeds up construction time, said Tan.

He said the outcomes of the CTP are being monitored closely and key takeaways will be studied for large-scale implementation in future BTO projects.

But he added that even as firms transform the way they design and build through robotics and automation, technology cannot replace the human touch that goes into planning, designing and constructing homes.

These automation efforts have helped HDB boost productivity, he said. The agency has been ramping up the supply of BTO flats following construction delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Since 2021, it has launched close to 83,000 flats, and remains on track to offer 100,000 flats by the end of 2025, Tan added.

He said about 34,500 BTO flats in 43 projects have been completed since 2023.

HDB also launched 2,800 flats with shorter waiting times of around three years in 2024, and aims to launch about 2,000 to 3,000 such flats every year.

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.