Autonomous Building Design for Manufacturing and Assembly: A Systematic Review of Design Application, Challenges, and Opportunities

The growing demand for sustainable and affordable construction, paired with labor shortages, requires more efficient tools and methodologies. Industrialized construction (IC) is one solution that has the ability to address construction efficiency by utilizing techniques such as modularization, construction automation, and building information modeling. One particular aspect of IC is Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) since the design phase determines up to 80% of the operating costs. However, DfMA is yet to be implemented in the construction industry due to some challenges in DfMA that inhibit full implementation. The majority of construction manufacturers have to regenerate the construction drawings for manufacturing which add substantial time to the schedule. Delays are caused by the lack of coordination of these components, as well as assemblies’ connections, compliance with building codes, and other related policies. Although many scholarly manufacturing and assembly works have studied and reviewed various aspects, techniques, and applications of DfMA, none have looked at the design process, tools and methods, or challenges in design automation. Using a systematic literature review, this study reviews the most recent innovative design responses for manufacturing and assemblies, and tools and methods. The study then analyzes the identified challenges of DfMA automation and processes in the existing literature on the construction industry, such as the lack of autonomous design and construction manufacturing. The literature analysis suggests future studies are required to improve DfMA not only as a technique but as a design strategy, particularly during the design process and prior to the production phase. Finally, future directions are provided to lead the next generation of research to advance building construction. Significantly, the results of this research provide an up-to-date status on autonomous DfMA and contribute to the body of knowledge of IC by synthesizing the state-of-the-art of building design automation and methods for manufacture and assembly.

Shifting the construction work from a jobsite to a factory environment and utilizing automation are resolutions to a lack of construction efficiency. Factory automation highly relies on DfMA processes. Automating the manufacturing process itself requires advanced knowledge, particularly DfMA; which is a common term referring to both management and technology that enables designers to ease a product’s material selection, cost, and factory production. Studies have addressed the state-of-the-art for DfMA, but none have looked at the design process from the early design stage, tools and methods, and the associated challenges. This paper provides a review of design automation techniques in various thematic categories including (1) design scale, from an entire building scale to a small component like a wall, (2) design parameters like structural strengths and sustainability, (3) building material types, (4) tools and methods, and (5) the challenges for implementation. The provided paper is a fundamental resource for DfMA research in construction manufacturing. Manufacturers, developers, and builders require such a resource to learn more about various aspects of the design process and associated challenges to either improve their production lines or establish new state-of-the-art factories.