No brickies by 2050

Tradesmen set to go to the wall as robots do construction work

ROBOTS will make building sites “human free” by 2050, an industry giant predicts.

A Balfour Beatty report said in future “automated” builders and robotic cranes and diggers would do “repetitive, manual tasks, such as bricklaying”.

And much of the buildings would be made in factories before being moved on to sites.

Workers would only be needed to control the machines, potentially on several sites at once, from a central location.

A very small number of people may work on sites wearing bionic “exoskeletons” to control robots’ arms and legs.

Balfour said automation could tackle a shortage of workers and improve safety, making the construction industry “more productive, creating new roles for skilled workers in cutting edge areas”.

Boss Leo Quinn said “a digital revolution” was making the industry “faster” and “better”.

In March, a US firm unveiled a robot capable of laying 3,000 bricks a day. Most brickies can only lay around 500.