IIT-M hosts 40th international symposium on automation & robotics in construction

CHENNAI: The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) on Wednesday announced that it is hosting the 40th International symposium on automation and robotics in construction (ISARC 2023) from July 3 to 9.

"The symposium is being participated by hundreds of experts from academia, industry, policymaking organizations, and other stakeholders related to the construction industry from across the world. Close to 100 research papers and posters from academics from all over the globe will be presented and discussed at the conference," said a release from IIT-Madras.

"This prestigious conference, considered to be the pre-eminent event in the construction sector globally in this area, is coming to India only for the second time in its history. The event is being coordinated by the Institute of Eminence Research Initiative Project on ‘Technologies for Low-Carbon Lean-Construction’ (TLC2), Building Technology and Construction Management Group in the Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Madras," it added.

Addressing the workshop V Kamakoti, Director, IIT-Madras said that the premiere institution is proud to host the ISARC as it comes back to India.

"From the Indian perspective, our infrastructure is growing at an exponential pace. There are three important things - speed, accuracy and safety. We are expecting a lot more in these areas from the construction sector and this is where technologies like 5G, sensors and other data acquisition systems can make construction a lot more reliable and faster. Over a period of time, IIT- Madras has been nurturing many start-ups that are working in multiple areas of automation and robotics," he said.

“We are also getting some exciting things in India. We will be constructing a university at an altitude of 4,000 metres where we are looking at zero carbon emission and adopting ‘Lean Construction.’ This place can be accessed only three to four months in a year. We are looking at automation to guide us through construction at a quick pace, enhance the safety for the labourers and provide stability for the building. As a computer science professor, I see three important trends coming up - digital twins, in which one can create a digital version of the building to be constructed, a lot more of deep learning, and the last is a very big intervention of Internet of Things (IoT) in energy. We have a commitment to sustainable development goals of the United Nations in the given time period. We have to use IoT and a lot more Edge Intelligence in the area of Energy," Kamakoti added.

The conference is being organized in partnership with the International Association for Automation and Robotics in Construction (IAARC), a premier global organization dedicated to advancement of Automation and Robotics in Construction.

IAARC integrates different fields including civil and building engineering, machine automation, robotics applications to construction, information technologies, planning, and logistics, among others.