IAARC is the world’s leading network of professionals and researchers in architecture, engineering, construction, and facility management (AEC/FM) who feel that the practice, education, and research of automation and robotics in construction have to transform in order to respond to the world’s existing and future challenges. What historically has been organized by leading academics around the world has turned in 1990 to the world’s leading International Organization for Automation and Robotics in Construction (IAARC).
By then a number of international symposia had already been convened and since 1984 the International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction (ISARC) is IAARC’s annual flagship event where both practitioners and researchers, industry and academic leaders meet. While ISARC has steadily grown over the past years it has always been presaging most of the innovations that have prominently emerged in the construction and infrastructure industries. Topics including 3D reality capture (i.e., laser scanning, drones), augmented/mixed/virtual reality (AR/MR/VR), artificial intelligence (AI), information modeling, 3D printed, automated heavy equipment, lean construction, supply chain management, prefabrication, and modularization have all been researched under the IAARC umbrella.
While the IAARC members come from all over the world, most are from the various industry and academic sectors in construction. Their common tie is to work together to drive innovation in safety, productivity, efficiency, and quality performances in an industry often pointed to lag behind others. The proclaimed goal of IAARC is to improve processes and people in the construction industry by advancing research and education on technology and innovative practices.
Even IAARC’s open source intellectual property (IP) approach is innovative. Over 4,500 ISARC proceedings are all freely available on the IAARC website (http://www.iaarc.org), with a new set added every year. Numerous innovations first researched within the IAARC community eventually emerged as commercial technologies, processes, and products, though in some cases it has taken decades. The recent uptake in interest of the AEC/FM community in transforming an entire industry through information and communication technologies (ICT) has considerably shortened the path of commercializing scientific research. Research-to-product (R2P) as well as rigorous prototype testing of integrated, practical, or operative solutions result in novel intellectual property (IP).
Other IAARC success stories involved innovative and forward thinking principles and methods like real-time automated material tracking, digital site layout planning, robotic platforms for automated assembly, human-machine interfaces, laser scanning for point cloud data acquisition and as-built modeling, internet-of-things (IoT), wearable sensing and actuation devices for safety and health monitoring, and many more. These are just a few of the topics that are presented at the annual ISARCs. Contributions of the most recent ISARC have proven that research and development on automation, robotic and digital technologies go hand-in-hand. They are about transforming the way we design, construct, or operate the built environment. It is therefore worth attending an ISARC where academic and industry leaders meet to bring much needed change to our industry!
For more information, please visit http://www.iaarc.org.