Bringing the total precision of a well-detailed BIM environment to the controlled chaos of the construction jobsite is still a work in progress. The real-world challenges of layout and site documentation can upend the intentions of the most well-developed design models. But recent advancements in layout technology, as well as a tightening feedback loop between field teams and dynamically updating models, are bringing new efficiencies and improvements to the industry.
On Project One, a multistory residential project in Oakland, Calif., a little wheeled robot putters over the mass-timber panels of the floor slab. Preprogrammed with the layout designs for that floor segment, the robot diligently fires up its built-in inkjet printer to print out the exact layout lines of where each wall segment and component needs to go. Using a nearby robotic total station as a reference point, the Roomba-like robot inscribes the intricate plans for the floor, giving the crews due for the next shift a millimeter-accurate layout for all of the wall installations.