Occasionally we take a look out to the horizon to satisfy our curiosity about what might be headed our way and what might be a major disruptor to the construction business as we do it today. We have introduced you to BIM, robots on the job, driverless dump trucks, driverless cars, driverless concrete trucks, drones of all kinds and more recently 3D printing.
Today we show you some conceptual thinking about the use of some of those tools in the military of the next 30 years as seen through the eyes of the scientists, engineers and designers at BAE Systems, the large UK aviation company with operations in Virginia, Houston, Austin and other cities in the United States.
While 30 years might seem a long time for us to look ahead, consider this. The major transportation projects in this country take 30 years from start to finish. The largest long-range bomber in the US arsenal, the B52, was first flown in 1952. If I am not mistaken, that is over 60 years ago. So, looking ahead 30 years should be easy to do.
But that is not the point here. The folks at BAE advanced four technologies that are of note for construction. First, they propose that drones of the future could join together for long flights and then break apart for sorties, then join together again for the flight back to their home base. Second, they see the ability to use on-board 3D printers to custom print drones needed for particular missions like rescue missions during disasters or on surveillance missions. Third, scientists in aerospace as well as at car manufacturers see materials that self heal on the fly. Fourth, they discuss energy beams that might intercept and destroy missiles at the speed of light.
So how could these technologies apply to your construction business in the next generation? Self-healing building skins, automated cranes (already in use)? What else should your Next Gen folks be anticipating for construction of the future?
You can see how some of these technologies might look in the following short videos.
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