News tech helps construction sector to be more worker-friendly

Ageing workforce, labour shortages, the need to improve the safety and the well-being of construction workers of any age and gender: these are some of the challenges that the European construction sector is facing currently.
Digitisation, automation, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are the means identified by BEEYONDERS to face these issues and help the European construction industry to increase its competitiveness, efficiency, safety and quality while reducing its environmental impact.

BEEYONDERS is a new European-funded project which aims to produce, commercialise and integrate pioneering worker-friendly technologies – such as autonomous vehicles and human robot collaboration, additive manufacturing, diagnostics and monitoring, and autonomous maintenance – into real construction scenarios.
Thus, the project will demonstrate the positive impact of these new technologies in terms of efficiency of resource use, reduced waste and embodied CO2 emissions and improved safety in construction environments. This will lead to a greater wellbeing of the construction workforce, who will be at the heart of the project’s innovation.
Finally, BEEYONDERS solutions will reduce the dependence on imported technologies related to additive manufacturing, human robot collaboration or autonomous vehicles, paving the way towards a more sustainable and competitive European construction industry.

“The European construction sector accounts for more than a fifth of all fatal accidents at work in the EU and is one of the least automated and digitised. Labour shortage, lack of digital skills, low motivation from young people, improved safety, increased productivity and resource efficiency and environmental impacts are key challenges we will have to face in the move towards an attractive, worker-centric EU Smart Construction sector. To support this move, ICONS will define workers’ requirements (and related KPIs) and assess the impacts of breakthrough technologies on workers to provide recommendations for their fine-tuning and adoption EU-wide. Moreover, ICONS is responsible for carrying out the project’s dissemination and communication activities to reach all the involved stakeholders and inform and engage them about the developed solutions and their crucial impacts on the EU construction sector”

(Sofia Finzi, ICONS’ Project Manager responsible for BEEYONDERS project)

The project started in June 2022 under the coordination of Acciona and the participation of 21 partners, two affiliated companies and one associated country. For the upcoming 42 months they will work together to produce, commercialise and integrate pioneering worker-friendly technologies for Europe’s construction sector.

To know more about BEEYONDERS contact Sofia Finzi – Communication and Press Office