AI and innovation “only route” to speed up UK housing delivery

As demand for new homes continues to exceed supply in the UK, with more than 1.5 million new homes required by 20291, experts at Smart Construction suggest that adopting AI and new technologies will be essential for the industry to fulfil these targets.

Experts at the digital arm of Komatsu point out that automation and technological integration are key factors in unlocking productivity and speeding up the delivery of new homes.

Forward-thinking earthworks company, Tru Earthworks, has transformed site efficiency and reduced housing delivery timelines through the adoption of technology across 27 varied UK projects.

By deploying Smart Construction Edge, Tru Earthworks enhanced its drone surveying as the software enables real-time processing. Instead of waiting to return to the office, data is processed immediately, even while travelling between sites, saving valuable time for the engineers. Alongside timesaving, the software reduces the need for manual point cloud clean-up, while also helping surveyors and engineers avoid hazardous on-foot surveys.

From large-scale development projects to housing sites, Tru Earthworks operates nationwide on mixed earthworks projects, with individuals conducting up to five full site surveys a week.

Prior to the adoption of the Edge technology from Smart Construction, the digital arm of manufacturing giant Komatsu, surveys were conducted manually and briefly by drone. A full progress measurement took approximately up to four hours, without even including the time needed to process and stitch the data into usable surveying outputs.

Through the use of drone-led technology and the Smart Construction Edge software, site managers can now complete surveys in just an hour- speeding up delivery significantly across housing projects.

Tristan Rumsby, Earthworks Engineer at Tru Earthworks, explains: “By adopting new technologies, the team can save days of work and accelerate the delivery of homes across multiple sites at once.

“Although not the sole blocker or delay in the construction process, the application of Edge and the significant time I can save means prioritising business critical output tasks - slashing unproductive hours and increasing delivery.

“As a team, we find the automated object removal capabilities to be a great time saver. Manual editing of point clouds requires a significant amount of time, but through the Edge, we can automatically remove machinery and non-terrain elements, providing an accurate overview of the ground.

“As well as positively impacting productivity, coupling the Edge software with the Dashboard solution from Smart Construction creates seamless collaboration across the business.”

The efficiency gained through the technology allows for less time to be spent on manual tasks and more time focusing on achieving key priorities.

Bart Vingerhoets, Senior Commercial Manager at Smart Construction, added: “At Smart Construction, we’re committed to speeding up delivery options for the UK. Each product in our solution suite is designed to create better efficiencies for those in the industry and the work from Tru7 is a fantastic example of its application.

“We’re proud to support customers across the UK and Europe with identifying potential inefficiencies and offering technology solutions to overcome these challenges.”

For more information please visit: smartconstruction.io.