Artificial intelligence in offsite and modular construction research

Abstract

The capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) in managing complex problems are increasing in construction. Particularly for offsite and modular construction (OMC). However, the knowledge landscape of AI applications in OMC remains fragmented, hindering the understanding of current developments and critical areas for advancing AI-in-OMC. Therefore, this paper presents a comprehensive overview of AI applications in OMC using a mixed-method review approach to identify key application areas of AI-in-OMC and under-researched areas. The findings reveal that the convolutional neural network (CNN) is the most prominent AI technique adopted, followed by artificial neural network (ANN). Prominent issues regarding AI-in-OMC include productivity and site safety. Further, the findings reveal patterns of different AI techniques solving similar research problems at each stage of OMC. Research areas to improve AI-in-OMC include AI-circular economy outcomes, sound and image data integration and transfer learning.