FW-HTF-P: LEAP: Learning, Accelerating, And Empowering Embodied Robot Technology Use Within The Construction Industry

建筑业在美国雇佣了数百万名工人，是美国经济的基石部门。不幸的是，与其他经济部门相比，生产率增长停滞不前，这往往是由于生产率低、劳动力短缺、劳动力老龄化和任务高度不同造成的。尽管这些特点使该行业充满了利用机器人自动化的潜力，但机器人技术与建筑的有效整合尚未发生，这一结果的驱动因素是建筑任务的高度可变性质、建筑过程的工业化程度最低、技术的可扩展性和适应性方面的挑战以及利益攸关方对变革的系统性抵制。问题出现了：我们如何在进入门槛最低的情况下有效地完成这一转型？为了解决这个问题，这个名为LEAP的项目研究了机器人技术的可接受性。LEAP基于这样的理念，即工作的未来在于促进技术和工人能力之间的和谐增长，解决创新实施与当前工作分配之间的错位，从而促进劳动密集型部门自动化的发展。Leap认为，成功的最佳途径是逐步增强员工的能力，以利用人类与技术的合作伙伴关系。该项目的结果将促进为工程劳动力开发具有技术的提升技能模型，这一范围属于FW-HTF的NSF Big Idea。从设计和管理技术示范中吸取的经验教训也适用于许多其他工业制造部门。该项目的愿景是促进逐步而平稳地过渡到人-技术合作伙伴关系，将自动化与人类工人整合在一起。该项目通过人-技术交互的体现来研究机器人技术的可接受性，体现是指对象和(人类)主体的耦合，从而可以对环境施加控制来操作。通过一项探索性(试点)研究，LEAP希望了解体现的潜在认知机制及其对建筑工人接受机器人技术的影响。Leap探索了工人的视觉视角和触觉，重点关注抑制物和刺激物，以告知社会对机器人态度的变化。这项研究将为未来机器人与工人交互在工人任务中体现的探索开辟先河，从而推动FW-HTF并使其受益。Leap将探索对建筑工地操作机器人能力的理解，并为建筑行业接受和遵守机器人技术建立新的原则。最终，LEAP将增加对工人个体差异的理解，并为个体工人对当前运营的战略变化制定一个变革性的框架。预计结果将有助于机器人技术应用的加速和增长。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 employs millions of workers in the United States and is a cornerstone sector for the US economy. Unfortunately, productivity growth has stagnated compared to other economic sectors, with the stagnation often attributed to low productivity rates, labor shortages, an aging workforce, and highly dissimilar tasks. Although the attributed features make the sector rife with potential to capitalize on robotic automation, the effective integration of robotics into construction has not yet occurred, an outcome-driven by the highly variable nature of construction tasks, minimal industrialization of construction processes, challenges in the scalability and adaptability of technology, and stakeholders’ systematic resistance to change. The question arises: how do we efficiently make this transition with the fewest barriers to entry? To address this question, this project, coined LEAP, studies the acceptability of robot technology. LEAP is based on the idea that the future of work lies in promoting harmonious growth between technology and workers’ capabilities, addressing misalignment between the implementation of innovations and the current allocation of work, thereby fostering the advancement of automation in labor-intensive sectors. LEAP posits that the best path for success is to incrementally empower workers to leverage the human-technology partnership. The project’s results will facilitate the development of upskilling models with technology for the engineering workforce, a scope that falls under NSF Big Idea of FW-HTF. Lessons learned from designing and administering the technology demonstration may apply in many other industrial manufacturing sectors.The project’s vision is to promote a gradual and smooth transition to a human-technology partnership that sees automation integrated alongside human workers. The project studies the acceptability of robot technology through the embodiment of human-technology interactions, embodiment refers to the coupling of an object and a (human) agent’s body such that control can be exerted to operate on the environment. Using an exploratory (pilot) study, LEAP looks for understanding the underlying cognitive mechanisms of embodiment and their effects on acceptance of robotics by construction workers. LEAP explores the worker’s visual perspective and haptic sense with a focus on inhibitors and stimulators to inform changes in social attitudes toward robots. The research will advance and benefit the FW-HTF by pioneering the exploration of embodiment in workers’ tasks for future robot-worker interactions. LEAP will explore the understanding of robotic capabilities for construction site operations and build new principles for robotic-technology acceptance and compliance in the construction industry. Ultimately, LEAP will increase the understanding of the workers’ individual differences and develop a transformative framework for individual workers’ strategic changes to current operations. Results are expected to contribute to the acceleration and growth of robotic-technology use.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.