Growing labor shortages continue to plague the construction industry, while trade schools and job training programs report their current enrollment won’t make up for a wave of retiring skilled workers. Robotic solutions to repetitive, labor-intensive tasks on construction sites are already available, but a new generation of robots aims to boost workforce efficiency by tackling the tedious and dangerous tasks that plague general and specialty contractors.

Drones and small walking robots such as Boston Dynamics’ Spot have been used by contractors for tasks such as reality capture for years now, but getting the most out of general-use robots on construction sites often requires the oversight of virtual design and construction teams and project managers, and many contractors simply don’t have the personnel or time to spare.