OBAYASHI CORPORATION (hereinafter referred to as the "Company," Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo, President: Kenji Hasuwa) has established its R&D base for the Asian region, "Obayashi Construction-Tech Lab Singapore" (hereinafter referred to as "OCLS") in Singapore. On July 18, 2024, a launch event was held to commemorate the launch and bring together local stakeholders from the construction technology ecosystem. Moving forward, OCLS will serve as a hub for fostering and deploying next-generation construction productivity technologies in the Asian region and for strengthening our research and development efforts through proactive collaboration with internal and external stakeholders.
Company background:
Since its inception, the Company has been committed to advancing construction-related technologies and promoting various technological developments. In addition to its Technology Research Institute (Kiyose City, Tokyo), which serves as the core research and development hub for the Obayashi Group, the Company opened the Silicon Valley Ventures & Laboratory in Silicon Valley in 2017 as an open innovation base. Thus, the Obayashi Group is actively engaged in research and technology development both domestically and internationally. In 2022, the Asia Digital Lab project team was also launched in Singapore to gather information on the latest construction technologies in the Asian region.
Context and Motivation:
In Singapore, labor-saving and productivity improvement have become major social issues in the construction industry, triggered in part by the shortage of foreign workers due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Construction companies and start-ups in Japan and abroad are actively developing technologies and applying them to construction sites. The Company has therefore established OCLS as a base for joint research and development with universities and other research institutions, construction companies, and start-ups in Asia. The focus will be on construction robotics technology, which is being actively developed and applied in the Asian region, and supporting its application to construction sites in Asia. In the future, OCLS will expand its scope to fields beyond construction robotics, actively promote the results of its research and development outside Japan, and promote the spread of its technology.
Vision:
With OCLS as a starting point, the Obayashi Group aims to solve social issues on a global scale by building a research and development ecosystem in Singapore and the rest of Asia, and accelerating the development of future-oriented technologies that transcend the boundaries of the construction industry.
About Obayashi Construction-Tech Lab Singapore (OCLS)
1. Facilities:
OCLS offices are located in Block E of the Building and Construction Authority’s (BCA) Braddell Campus making them part of the Built Environments Innovation Hub (BEIH) Ecosystem. Launched in October 2023, the Built Environment Innovation Hub (BEIH) is envisioned as a collaborative space for like-minded individuals to connect and showcase innovative technologies, exchange ideas, and transfer knowledge to accelerate the transformation of the Built Environment.
Address: 200 Braddell Road, BCA Braddell Campus Blk E #12-65, Singapore 579700
2. Research and Development Initiatives at OCLS:
(a) Accelerating the Validation and Deployment of Asia-Origin Technologies on Construction Sites: OCLS will receive funding support from BCA’s Productivity Innovation Project (PIP) incentive scheme to bring robots from Chinese robot maker Fang Shi Technology to Singapore. This PIP scheme co-funds technology adoption and innovations that improve productivity. Their concrete leveling and troweling robots will be used in one of Obayashi Singapore’s ongoing projects aiming to greatly reduce the manual labor required compared to existing methods.
(b) Collaborative Research with the Singapore Centre for 3D Printing (SC3DP): OCLS will collaborate with SC3DP, located within Nanyang Technological University (NTU), to explore the application of 3D printing technology in the construction industry. Under the new Master Research Collaboration Agreement (MRCA), OCLS and NTU Singapore will launch a joint laboratory at SC3DP. This partnership will focus on developing research initiatives that will pioneer the development of sustainable construction materials and the 3D printing of mechanical joints and multi-material components.
(c) Collaborative Research with the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD): Following the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that OCLS and SUTD signed last November, both parties plan to conduct joint research and explore collaborations in the areas of design, development, and application of robotic solutions as well as artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the design and construction process. For example, SUTD and OCLS will be mapping construction sites using sensors and AI to explore ways to make them robot-friendly. Another area of collaboration is the development of a platform or framework enabling the remote management of multiple robots on different construction sites.
