FW-HTF-P: Redesigning the Future of Construction Work by Replicating the Master-Apprentice Learning Model in Human-Robot Worker Teams

建筑业可以从提高生产率、使用现代工作程序、改善利益攸关方之间的关系以及更多地关注建筑工人的安全和健康问题中受益匪浅。在没有这些改进的情况下，熟练建筑工人的长期短缺已经形成，这主要是由于劳动力退休，以及年轻一代或不同能力的人不愿从事这种职业。最近，新冠肺炎疫情的爆发造成了严重的经济困难和建设项目的进度延误，因为在建筑工地上很难保持与社会的距离。这些影响进一步强调了需要能够让工人远程执行任务的施工技术，从而减少任何时候现场工人的数量，以确保工人的健康和安全。这笔规划赠款将支持对人类-机器人团队改变未来建筑工作和未来建筑工人形象的潜力的调查。预计这些变化将带来新的职业机会，并为该行业带来重大好处。项目组设想，人类工人将利用技术教协作机器人远程执行建筑工作任务，从而产生可在建筑行业广泛部署的共生人-机器人团队。这种方法与当今建筑行业流行的经典师徒职业模式平行。这项研究规划拨款的总体目标是通过与一系列利益相关者的接触来探索人类-机器人团队的可行性和潜力。该规划项目的拟议活动包括：1)分发给建筑公司、当前建筑工人和未来潜在建筑工人(高中生)的代表的实况调查；2)建筑公司和工人代表的技术试验演示和反馈；以及3)由来自学术界和工业界的专家利益相关者参加的综合研究计划开发研讨会。这些活动将使研究团队能够为制定融合的研究议程奠定基础，该议程将把建筑工作的未来重塑为支持终身学习、知识转移和有效团队合作的自我维持循环的人-机器人伙伴关系。最终，该项目的结果将在不取代现有劳动力或对建筑工作过程产生不利影响的情况下，为在建筑工地上安装协作机器人带来的机遇和挑战提供信息。这项规划拨款的成功将为一项重大的研究工作铺平道路，该研究工作将以人为中心，面向未来的建筑工作，并确保它提高可访问性、生活质量、生产率和工作满意度。私人投资促进机构将从工业界和学术界招募不同群体的学生和合作伙伴，并在学术和行业场所广泛传播研究成果。该项目由人类-技术前沿交叉部门工作未来计划资助，旨在推进与人类工人和谐运作的智能工作技术的设计。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The construction industry could benefit significantly from increased productivity, use of modern work processes, improved relationships among stakeholders, and increased attention to safety and health issues of construction workers. In the absence of these improvements, a chronic shortage of skilled construction workers has developed, largely due to a retiring workforce and the reluctance of younger generations or people of different abilities to pursue such careers. More recently, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused serious economic difficulties and schedule delays on construction projects, since it is hard to maintain social-distancing on construction sites. These impacts further emphasize the need for construction techniques that can allow workers to perform tasks remotely, decreasing the number of on-site workers at any one time to ensure worker health and safety. This planning grant will support investigation of the potential of human-robot teams to transform future construction work and the profile of future construction workers. It is expected that such changes would result in new career opportunities and significant benefits to the industry. The project team envisions that human workers will use technology to teach co-robots to perform construction work tasks remotely, resulting in symbiotic human-robot teams that can be widely deployed in the construction industry. This approach parallels the classical Master-Apprentice vocational model prevalent in today’s construction industry.The overarching goal of this research planning grant is to explore the feasibility and potential of a human-robot team through engagement with a range of stakeholders. The proposed activities for this planning project include: 1) Fact-finding surveys distributed to representatives of construction firms, current construction workers, and potential future construction workers (high school students); 2) Technology pilot presentation and feedback from representatives of construction firms and workers; and 3) A comprehensive research program development workshop with expert stakeholder participants from academia and industry. These activities will allow the research team to set the foundation for developing a convergent research agenda that reshapes the future of construction work into a human-robot partnership that supports a self-sustaining cycle of lifelong learning, knowledge-transfer, and effective teamwork. Ultimately, the results of this project will inform the opportunities and challenges of incorporating co-robots on construction sites without replacing the current workforce or adversely impacting the construction work process. The success of this planning grant will pave the way for a significant research effort that takes a human-centered approach toward the future of construction work and ensures that it improves accessibility, quality of life, productivity, and job satisfaction. The PIs will recruit a diverse group of students and partners from industry and academia and pursue broad dissemination of the research findings in academic and industry venues. This project has been funded by the Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier cross-directorate program to advance design of intelligent work technologies that operate in harmony with human workers.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.