The construction industry, similar to other industries, has been moving toward automation and implementation of AI tools to enhance analysis, management and decision-making. The construction industry typically takes longer than other industries in inaugurating innovation and advanced technologies due to the complex nature of the industry. Research effort is deemed necessary to understand needs and overcome challenges in terms of studying the capabilities and potential of existing tools and technologies in areas related to construction engineering and management. The current Research Topic attempted to collect relevant research work in terms of automation and AI application in constructing new assets and managing existing infrastructure. Further research is needed to standardize these processes and align research work with current needs

Alsharqawi, Mohammad

Alzraiee, Hani

Dabous, Saleh Abu

Mantha, Bharadwaj R.

Rashidi, Maria (R18339)

Zhu, Zhenhua

English

Western Sydney ResearchDirect

Editorial: Automation and artificialintelligence in construction andmanagement of civilinfrastructureSaleh Abu Dabous1*, Maria Rashidi2, Zhenhua Zhu3,Hani Alzraiee4, Bharadwaj R. K. Mantha1 andMohammad Alsharqawi51Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates,2Centre for Infrastructure Engineering, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia, 3Departmentof Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States,4Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, California Polytechnic State University, San LuisObispo, CA, United States, 5Township of South Stormont, South Stormont, ON, CanadaKEYWORDSinfrastructure, construction, automation, NDT technologies, UAV, artificial intelligence,machine learning, infrastructure managementEditorial on the Research TopicAutomation and artificial intelligence in construction and management ofcivil infrastructureIntroductionThe global trend is to innovate processes and capitalize on the significant advancementsin the areas of automation and artificial intelligence (AI). Since the construction industry isdeemed unique for its complexity and challenging environment of project delivery, there ismeager adoption of innovation and automation systems, especially when compared to otherindustries such as manufacturing. Significant research efforts are needed to facilitate theimplementation of such innovative systems within the construction industry. However,recent trends suggest there is a shift in the construction industry to improve overallperformance particularly productivity through construction automation and enhanceddata analysis, management, and decision-making through AI tools. The extensive dataand high computational capacity of computers are leveraged to achieve this. This ResearchTopic attempts to collect recent advancements in the areas of construction processautomation and implementation of AI-based infrastructure management.BackgroundConstruction industry has been at the forefront of providing essential assets and servicesto any society. Improving construction productivity due to limited resources available toconstruction projects continues to be a major challenge that requires innovative solutions. InOPEN ACCESSEDITED AND REVIEWED BYMuhammad Junaid Munir,RMIT University, Australia*CORRESPONDENCESaleh Abu Dabous,sabudabous@sharjah.ac.aeSPECIALTY SECTIONThis article was submitted toConstruction Management,a section of the journalFrontiers in Built EnvironmentRECEIVED 31 January 2023ACCEPTED 06 March 2023PUBLISHED 10 March 2023CITATIONAbu Dabous S, Rashidi M, Zhu Z,Alzraiee H, Mantha BRK and Alsharqawi M(2023), Editorial: Automation and artificialintelligence in construction andmanagement of civil infrastructure.Front. Built Environ. 9:1155240.doi: 10.3389/fbuil.2023.1155240COPYRIGHT© 2023 Abu Dabous, Rashidi, Zhu,Alzraiee, Mantha and Alsharqawi. This isan open-access article distributed underthe terms of the Creative CommonsAttribution License (CC BY). The use,distribution or reproduction in otherforums is permitted, provided the originalauthor(s) and the copyright owner(s) arecredited and that the original publicationin this journal is cited, in accordance withaccepted academic practice. No use,distribution or reproduction is permittedwhich does not comply with these terms.Frontiers in Built Environment frontiersin.org01TYPE EditorialPUBLISHED 10 March 2023DOI 10.3389/fbuil.2023.1155240addition, construction stakeholders such as owners, contractors,designers, suppliers, and governments face significant challenges tocater to the demand for new construction due to the ever-growingsocietal needs while at the same time maintaining budgetconstraints. These challenges persist while delivering newconstruction and managing the existing infrastructure. Innovativetechnologies, systems and methods can advance the state-of-the-artconceptualization, design, planning, procurement, fabrication,supply chain, operation, and management of construction projects.ContentThe construction industry is moving towards innovation. Emergingtechnologies and systems are being considered and integrated within theongoing research and development activities to improve the planning,design, and management the construction projects. These technologiesinclude laser scanning, 3D printing, geographic information system, andunmanned air vehicles. In addition, emerging techniques such asartificial intelligence, classification, data fusion, decision supportsystems, and digital twin (DT) technologies are revolutionizingdifferent industries including construction. The Research Topicreceived seven peer-reviewed submissions. Among these, four articleswere approved by the reviewers and editorial team for publication.Out ofwhich, one of them is a review paper, one of them is a quantitative study,and two of them are qualitative studies.First, in the review paper, (Gamil and Cwirzen) researchers fromSweden focused on the state-of-the-art review of the digitaltransformation of different concrete technologies. The main goalis the sustainable integration of existing technologies across differentlife cycle phases of projects such as design, construction, andoperation and maintenance. To achieve this, the review articleextensively investigates the advantages, disadvantages, futureopportunities, and way forward for each of these technologiespaving the way for a future research and implementation roadmap.Second, an extensive study conducted in Bahrain (Alnaser et al.)investigated the relationship between the SARS-CoV-2 cases andmeteorological parameters based on 27 months of data. Theobjective was to examine the correlation between environmentalparameters and the new cases. Upon the examination of data fromFebruary 2020 toMay 2022, the study observed that wind speed (V) hada positive correlation, relative humidity (RH) had no correlation, andtemperature (T) and absolute humidity (AH) had a negative correlationwith the new cases. Furthermore, an empirical relationship wasdeveloped to estimate SARS-CoV-2 cases in Bahrain as a functionof three parameters, namely, T, AH, and V. Policymakers can andshould take advantage of these findings while designing or redesigningthe existing urban landscape, city and regional planning to directly orindirectly counter potential future pandemics.Third, a study conducted by researchers in South Africa (SA)(Tjebane et al.) explored the organisational factors that will drive therapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in constructionorganisations. To achieve this, exploratory factor analysis wasconducted on 169 survey responses to identify critical factors to easethe adoption of AI in the construction industry. A total of 17 factors wereidentified which are divided into four components, namely, innovativeorganisational culture, competence-based development, collaborativedecision-making, and strategic analysis. Although the same factorsand components cannot be directly translated to other geographicalregions or countries, the contributions to the research community andSA construction industry are apparent. In addition, the study can also beadopted or used as a foundational basis for focused region-level studies.Fourth and finally, a study conducted by researchers in SA(Onososen and Musonda) explored and evaluated the benefits ofintegrating automation and AI to improve the workflow and systemsin the architecture engineering and construction (AEC) sector. Acombination of different methods such as interpretive structuralmodeling and croises-multiplication applique a classement analysis(MICMAC) were used to not only understand the perceived benefitsand their inter-relationships but also to categorize them. Some of thehighlights perceived benefits include improved project quality,simplification of construction tasks, workflow improvements, andsafety performance. The study findings are extremely critical to layout the cost-benefit index of adopting different AI technologies intothe construction industry. In addition, the results also shed light onfeasible and impactful approaches to drive the push of AI in theconstruction industry and research community.Summary and conclusionThe construction industry, similar to other industries, has beenmoving toward automation and implementation of AI tools to enhanceanalysis, management and decision-making. The construction industrytypically takes longer than other industries in inaugurating innovationand advanced technologies due to the complex nature of the industry.Research effort is deemed necessary to understand needs and overcomechallenges in terms of studying the capabilities and potential of existingtools and technologies in areas related to construction engineering andmanagement. The current Research Topic attempted to collect relevantresearch work in terms of automation and AI application inconstructing new assets and managing existing infrastructure.Further research is needed to standardize these processes and alignresearch work with current needs.Author contributionsAll authors listed havemade a substantial, direct, and intellectualcontribution to the work and approved it for publication.Conflict of interestThe authors declare that the research was conducted in theabsence of any commercial or financial relationships that could beconstrued as a potential conflict of interest.Publisher’s noteAll claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authorsand do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations,or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any productthat may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by itsmanufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.Frontiers in Built Environment frontiersin.org02Abu Dabous et al. 10.3389/fbuil.2023.1155240

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