Bricklaying robots in the South African construction industry: The contractor's perspective

The construction industry has been slow in adopting new technological innovations, even though studies have shown that the adoption of automation and robotics would result in the construction works being executed in safer environments, with better alternative building methods, that could ensure that the works are executed with greater accuracy therefore improving the quality of construction works. This paper investigated the contractor’s perception of adopting the semi-automated mason (SAM) a bricklaying robot in the South African construction industry as an alternative building method that would contribute to the introduction of automation and robotics in the industry. A qualitative research design was used. The non-probability purposive sampling method was used to select 20 construction companies based in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal for the purposes of conducting this study. Data were collected through telephonic semi-structured interviews with respondents from construction companies and were thematically analysed using NVivo 12. The study revealed that the construction industry professionals are willing to adopt the semi-automated mason into their working structures, but believe that, currently, the South African construction is not ready to implement such technological innovations. The challenges identified by the respondents where the high unemployment rate in South Africa, the risk of mass job losses among manual labourers and the cost of the robot would be great barriers to companies willing to adopt SAM.