Congratulations to CDWI Centre member, Dr Carol Hon (School of Architecture and Built Environment) and Professor Nerina Jimmieson (School of Management) in their success as CIs on the recently awarded ARC Research Hub for Human-Robot Teaming for Sustainable and Resilient Construction. The Hub is led by Professor Dikai Liu from UTS and is one of seven ARC Industrial Transformation Research Hubs commencing in 2024.
Carol will lead research program 12 ‘Safety measurements, analysis and modelling’ working with Nerina to examine how human-robot teaming (HRT) affects safety risks (both physical and psychosocial) and how these risks can be effectively managed and controlled. The benefits and risks associated with the deployment of HRT in construction workplaces will be investigated via workplace experiments, ethnographies, case studies, interviews, and survey methods.
Led by RMIT, Carol and Nerina will also be involved in program 11, ‘Human mental and physical health and wellbeing with human-robot teaming’ whereby a comparative case study design utilising ethnographic research methods in construction workplaces in which an HRT solution is being considered and/or implemented. Data collected will inform how the HRT solution would change the way construction work is performed, the extent to which (and how) these changes could impact workers’ physical and psychological health or wellbeing; and how the HRT intervention could be designed and implemented in ways that prevent harm and promote workers’ health and wellbeing.
We congratulate Carol and Nerina and look forward to the outcomes of this significant research project.