Skills shortages, rising costs and increasing requirements for hygiene and availability are creating ever greater challenges for facility management. Robotics is considered a potential solution – but the scope for its use depends largely on the conditions within the building itself. This year, Drees & Sommer and NEURA Robotics launched a strategic partnership aimed at designing buildings in a way that enables people and robots to work together seamlessly and in real time during operations.
The use of autonomous systems in building operations has been discussed for years, but in practice it often falls short of its potential. This is because robotics can only realise its full potential when interacting effectively with the environment in which it operates. This is precisely where the strategic partnership between Drees & Sommer, a company specialising in integrated delivery for construction and infrastructure, and NEURA Robotics, a pioneer in cognitive robotics and physical AI, comes in.
The aim of the collaboration is not simply to plan and operate buildings, but to create interactive, adaptive systems in which people and robots can work together seamlessly and in real time. Autonomous systems are intended to be deployed primarily in areas where skilled workers are in short supply. The companies see an initial application in areas with high levels of use, such as the operation and maintenance of sanitary facilities. High usage rates and growing expectations regarding cleanliness and continuous availability present particular challenges in these areas. “Robotics can provide targeted support here. Autonomous systems can detect soiling, respond to changing requirements, replenish consumables and identify technical issues at an early stage,” explains Georg Stadlhofer, Managing Director of Drees & Sommer Austria. The use of robotics can create more stable processes in many areas, increase transparency in building operations and deliver measurable improvements in quality.
Buildings and Robotics Working Together
The challenges of building operations are particularly evident in office buildings, healthcare facilities and transport infrastructure. “We connect the physical and digital worlds, creating the conditions that will enable robots to interact more effectively with their surroundings and with people in the future,” says Stadlhofer. At the same time, automation is increasingly changing the roles of people working in facility management: routine tasks are being reduced, while management, communication and service quality are moving more strongly into focus.
“Very soon, robots will no longer simply be tools, but natural, intelligent companions in our buildings,” explains David Reger, CEO of NEURA Robotics. “Connected, adaptive and autonomous, they will clean, service and maintain facilities precisely where skilled workers are in short supply today.” The basis for this is the “Sensorized Environment” approach, in which buildings continuously collect information about their use and condition, including movement, processes and technical status.
Veit Thurm, Partner at Drees & Sommer and responsible for the cooperation, explains: “We are no longer talking simply about building technology, but about cognitive infrastructure. Buildings perceive their surroundings, interpret situations and interact with robots – safely, scalably and with increasing autonomy.” This creates adaptive buildings in which robotics is systematically taken into account from the planning stage onwards.
“The use of robotics is part of a fundamental transformation in facility management: a shift towards data-driven, connected and increasingly automated operating models,” Stadlhofer concludes.
Photo:
Digital assistants in everyday life: Cognitive robots support people where staff are in short supply.
© NEURA Robotics
Drees & Sommer: Uniting opposites to create a world we want to live in.
Drees & Sommer SE is a partner-led consulting company that develops and implements sustainable, innovative and economically viable solutions for the Real Estate, Infrastructure and Industry markets – or provides clients with both consulting and implementation services from a single source. Founded in 1970 and recognised ever since as a pioneer in sustainability and a driver of digitalisation, the international company employs more than 6,500 people at over 80 locations worldwide. Drees & Sommer has been present in Austria since 1991, with around 150 employees across its offices in Vienna, Linz, Salzburg, Klagenfurt, Innsbruck and Dornbirn. Interdisciplinary teams work on around 7,000 projects worldwide to create a future worth living and unite apparent opposites: tradition and the future, economy and ecology, analogue and digital, efficiency and well-being. The company’s personally accountable partners embody its principle of entrepreneurship within the organisation.