Advancing robotic assembly in construction: Innovations, challenges, and opportunities

Robotic assembly in construction (RAC) offers promising solutions to persistent industry challenges, including labor shortages, low productivity, and safety risks, while enabling novel expressive architectures, effective mass customization of building components, and low-waste construction practices. Despite this potential, comprehensive research on the evolving landscape of RAC remains limited. This paper addresses that gap through a systematic review and bibliometric analysis, structured around the [hu]man, machine, material, method, and environment (4M1E) framework. Recent advancements in RAC are synthesized, including innovations in equipment, and human–robot and multi-robot collaborative assembly. Drawing on these insights, a “Design-Sense-Plan-Act-Evaluate” workflow is proposed to articulate RAC's operational logic. Furthermore, major challenges are identified, and future research directions are outlined, including enhancing multi-agent collaboration, exploring multi-material assemblies, integrating artificial intelligence into RAC, and expanding on-site evaluations. This research aims to inform and guide future innovations in RAC.