Q-Bot: Walking the digital talk, one floor at a time
The world has gone digital. With an estimated 70% of new economic value created over the next decade forecast to be digital, the writing is not so much on the wall, as on the screen. Data is driving everything, from sports to cars.
In the built environment, artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics are fast becoming buzzwords for innovation, yet much of construction remains rooted in tradition — founded on labour-intensive, locationally-fixed, physical activities. There is a digital disconnect.
Walking the digital talk
Digitalisation is a work in progress, but one full of promise, says Martin Jervis, Chief Commercial and Operating Officer at Q-Bot, the market leaders in robotic floor insulation:
“The construction industry has more to gain from developments in AI and robotics than any other sector. The potential is enormous, but that doesn’t make it straightforward.”
One of the reasons the opportunity is so great is that the industry is still essentially a digital laggard, in many respects. From BIM Level 2, to 3D printing, the sector has undoubtedly set out on its digital journey, but still has a long way to go.
The investment gap between intention and implementation was exposed by the findings of a major survey last year examining the digital maturity of some 835 construction firms across 13 countries.
The good news was that almost 3 out of every 4 firms (72%) said they considered digital transformation a priority, with the figure for Europe even higher (82%). The bad news was almost a third of those same companies (32%) were spending less than 3% of total turnover on digital technologies.
Walking the talk clearly remains an issue, argues Martin:
“There are lots of people making lots of noise about lots of things — we are definitely not short of either talk or tech. The barrier to progress is in bringing that innovation to scale. In part, this is down to a lack of appetite and a relatively risk-averse business culture.
“The result is that, here in the UK, we have a short-termist sector that capriciously chases government stimulus money. Pump-priming is a valuable and necessary part of the process, but too often the industry is simply cashing-in, not buying-in to strategic change.”
Getting a return on robotics
When it comes to robotics and AI, whilst the two often get mentioned in the same breath, in reality their development prospects are pretty different, according to Martin.
Compared to robotics, there is more hype around AI — mostly because it is easier and cheaper to do. Machine learning solutions require less development time and money.
For robotics in construction, the implementation scenario varies significantly across the three primary use cases: Offsite manufacturing; built environment applications; and construction sites.
Offsite has attracted strong investment and government support, particularly since its endorsement in the influential 2016 Farmer Review of UK Construction Modernise or Die.
The controlled factory environment of offsite manufacturing is ideally suited to robotics, even allowing for increasing customisation. The robot essentially encounters the same set of circumstances repeatedly and operates in the same place, day after day.
By contrast, a robot working out in the built environment is likely to meet a mixture of designs, structures and materials in all sorts of states of disrepair. This means robots for retrofit or refurbishment face many more decisions to make and much greater complexity.
The third use scenario, construction sites, is even more challenging, involving an almost infinite number of variables. Getting robots successfully set up and moving around safely is hard when no two sites are the same; and no one site is even the same day to day.
So, whilst robotics is not a cheap business to get into, the value proposition depends on the return, which is essentially a matter of scale. All of which makes the proven ability of Q-Bot to apply robotics in the delivery of thermal efficiency — with energy savings, carbon reduction and community benefit — a real success story for the built environment.
Doing the impossible, guaranteed
When it comes to jobs, they say robots are ideally suited to substitute for humans when it comes to doing the ‘3D’ tasks — those that are ‘Dull, Dirty and Dangerous’. In the case of the built environment, it is perhaps more a case of the three ‘I’s, suggests Martin Jervis:
“Robots are perfect for tackling the ‘Impossible, Inadvisable and Inauditable’ — going where people either can’t or shouldn’t, then providing proof of quality of work done. Because the job is not only guaranteed, but also evidenced, insurance professionals have described it as the best risk they have ever had to underwrite!”
Not only does Q-Bot’s underfloor robot, known as ‘Betty’, perform the job of insulating within a floor void or crawl space, but she also records everything down there, making it 100% auditable.
Furthermore, since all the footage is uploaded to the online install management system — including the videos from before, during and after, plus 3D scans and survey data — the process effectively creates a complete digital record.
Offering 360-degree transparency, this record is available for all involved to inspect — the installer, the compliance officer and the client, as well as, of course, Q-Bot themselves. Better still, the work can be checked remotely from the comfort of a desktop, which saves on site inspections and visits, plus makes for an added bonus in the middle of a pandemic.
Watch Betty’s colleague ‘Emmeline’ in action insulating a suspended timber floor below:
Market for Whole House Retrofit
With the market moving towards Whole House Retrofit, or even a net-zero Energiesprong renovation, the likes of social landlords in particular are looking for additional, affordable ways of improving the thermal efficiency and energy consumption of their properties.
Moving beyond simply insulating lofts and walls, floors are next-best value for energy efficiency, explains Martin
“With suspended floors responsible for both one third of draughts coming in and 20% of all heat loss going out, underfloor insulation offers a big, deliverable and measurable win.”
Especially in the early days, the fact that Q-Bot was the only solution provider with its performance data independently verified by the Energy Saving Trust (EST) proved important to the growth of the company. Providing third-party validation of effectiveness, the certification process by the EST confirmed Q-Bot’s underfloor insulation typically saves around £255 a year in an electrically heated home for domestic energy consumers or £110 a year in a gas-heated home.
Q-Bot also benefited from becoming the first robot-enabled service certified by the British Board of Agrément (BBA), plus having an in-depth study by Leeds Beckett University to show a 24% reduction in heating bills could be attributed to installation of floor insulation.
Now, with large contracts on the go — such as 3-year project for 200 houses with a Registered Social Landlord (RSL) — the growth challenge for Q-Bot revolves more around scaling-up supply-chain partnering, than bridging a new-tech credibility gap to win clients.
Scaling-up the supply chain
With existing UK housing stock still notoriously energy inefficient, the market opportunity for solutions-providers like Q-Bot is huge, if they can scale to meet demand, says Martin:
“Following on from the false dawn of the Green Homes Grant, UK Net Zero aspirations are in urgent need of a boost. The rewards remain significant for organisations capable of realising that potential, though. So, for us, it is all about partners and the supply chain.
“Direct labour organisations within social housing are a perfect home for our service, which fulfils an RSL’s mission of creating employment and investing in the local community. It also supports equality, diversity and inclusion — if you can use a gaming console, you’re in!”
Investing continuously in innovation, Q-Bot already has 24 active patents and about as many again pending — with projects in the pipeline that include:
- An affordable scanner capable of providing both a 3D image and a thermal one at the same time, so speeding creation of a digital twin;
- A robot for use in building services, exploring how to get wiring or plumbing into and through inaccessible spaces, with potential to benefit installation of air source heat pumps; and,
- An external wall robot that minimises the need for scaffolding, designed in collaboration with the world’s largest manufacturer of render.
In all of this, though, the challenge is still scaling and commercialisation. As a disruptor, Q-Bot does not easily fit the mould when it comes to business-as-usual procurement. In some cases, technology waivers can help jump that hurdle, but if the sector is serious about mainstreaming solutions for the digital age, more is needed, concludes Martin:
“With 27 million homes to retrofit in the UK, each costing somewhere between £2-6k to make affordably climate-ready and people-friendly, there needs to be a strategic plan in place to pay the bill for sustainability in the built environment.
“We are asking for multi-year, multi-parliament funding commitments — not just to help homeowners, local authorities and landlords fund the work, but also to back the necessary supply-chain investment in jobs and training to do it.
“So, for the built environment, walking the digital talk is all about change management and empowerment of those in the vanguard of scalable innovation ready for roll-out nationwide — and that means both the solutions providers and the procurement professionals, alike.”
