GOLDEN, Colo. — Construction is underway on a new research facility at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Among the many human construction workers is a specialized robot that was created as a potential solution to a worker shortage in the construction industry.
Hilti launched the Jaibot drilling robot in 2019 as the first commercialized semi-autonomous layout and drilling robot. This is the first time the technology is being used in Colorado.
"We were the first to come up with a machine that you could load with digital content, bring to a site, position it, and then it would do its own tasks by reaching to the ceiling and drilling the holes in the right location to the right depth," Craig Maiwald, robotics business development manager with Hilti, explained.
Using x and y coordinates, the Jaibot drills holes to help with mechanical, electrical, and plumbing installations.
- Maiwald explains the role of the robot on the NREL project in the video player below
According to Maiwald, the robot is "anywhere from five to 10 times more effective than individuals" and allows employees to do other tasks.
"The inspiration was that the workload on guys in the field, it is a tedious, tiresome, it's just dust ridden as you can see, and we wanted to take that burden off the guys and just make it more productive," Maiwald told Denver7.
An operator is needed to drive the Jaibot and help orient the technology to specific points.
"I would say it's very time-efficient," said operator Nolan Brosch. "We were getting up to 300 holes a day downstairs, so I don't know how many an apprentice can drill, but it saves a lot of time and a lot of money."
Maiwald said this tool can be a solution amid a nationwide construction labor shortage.
"We're probably 400,000 people short in the industry nationwide, and we know that that's an increasing number, not a decreasing number," Maiwald said. "Also, we have a great migration of people retiring and less new people coming into the industry, and we felt that one way Hilti could contribute was to come up with a product that would use less labor."
According to Jack Tate, president and CEO of Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) Rocky Mountain Chapter, the industry will need 400,000 to 500,000 additional workers in 2026 to bridge the divide.
"It's been a chronic challenge in the construction industry, bringing new workers into the industry, skilled workers to replace an increasing rate of retirement from construction in the commercial industrial segments, and so ABC forecasts a large worker shortage next year," Tate said.
Tate said the hope is to use technology to entice younger generations to enter the industry.
"Instead, we'll see technology increasing productivity and improving retention and increasing safety, and when you have a safer, less physically demanding job that's tech and tech-enabled, we find that people want to stay in construction," Tate explained. "Then finally, we're finding that technology overall, coming into all phases of construction, are showing workers already in the industry that there's a whole new field of career opportunities to be had."
