Tapping into new professions: Intelligent constructors operate robots to foster high-quality construction

Editor's note: CGTN presents "New Trends," which explores new trends among Chinese people as well as their underlying causes. We focus on the impacts of China's reform and opening up, emphasizing the modernization strategies outlined by the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Communist Party of China Central Committee. This era of transformation, driven by new productive forces, is reshaping Chinese people's lifestyles and daily experiences, blending tradition with innovation to redefine how they live and work.

"I think robot construction is the future development trend of the construction industry, and I think it has very promising prospects," said Luo Huiming, who works in the intelligent construction industry, while tapping the tablet computer with his fingers.

Born after 1990, Luo is an automotive major graduate and never imagined working at a construction site, which he considered labor-intensive and unsafe. But Luo's mindset changed when he got to know this emerging industry by participating in the training of intelligent construction industry technicians.

"What we do every day now is operating the machines (robots) to conduct construction. The working environment is really quite different from what I had imagined," Luo said, "We can work all day and still keep our clothes relatively clean."

Instead of physically polishing the wall putty, Luo only has to prepare materials before construction and pay attention to whether the remaining materials are sufficient during construction to ensure the normal operation of the robots.

According to Luo, the construction robots have higher efficiency and can work on areas that ordinary human workers cannot reach. "The time it takes a construction robot to polish the wall putty of a room is usually half that of a human construction worker," Luo added.

The construction robots are a game-changer in the construction industry. For new construction workers like Lou, they are widely thought to be self-sufficient strategies used in the construction industry to deal with industrial upgrading given the lack of talent in recent years. 

The construction industry is one of the pillar industries of China's national economy, and is also an important field to attract employment and ensure people's livelihood.

Data from the ministry of housing and urban-rural development showed that in 2021, the total output value of the construction industry was 29.3 trillion yuan (around $4 trillion), an increase of 11 percent year on year, the added value accounted for 7 percent of the GDP, and provided more than 50 million jobs for the society.

Intelligent construction, represented by the construction robots and technicians operating the robots like Luo, is key to the high quality development of the construction industry.

Xing Kai, who also operates construction robots at a construction site in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, found it challenging to operate the robots.

"It's a comprehensive job to operate the robots. There are a lot of things to learn, such as robot operation, robot maintenance, on-site coordination and also traditional construction corner processing," Xing said.

"It took me more than half a month to do theoretical training and field operation. I even spent another week practicing operating robots, thus making myself basically qualified."

In all, Xing thought construction robots are very suitable for large-sized and standardized construction sites, replacing human workers in simple, repetitive, labor-consuming and dangerous work.

The massive application of construction robots calls for more operators for the robots, especially as the country aims for entering the ranks of world powers in intelligent construction by 2035.

To realize it, the "14th Five-Year Construction Industry Development Plan" clearly states that vigorously promoting prefabricated buildings and accelerating the development and application of construction robots.

Therefore in the future, with the continuous development of the whole industry chain such as the development, operation and maintenance of construction robots, the demand for talent, including the intelligent constructors who operate and maintain robots, continues to increase, ushering in good employment prospects.

Many cities in the country have introduced measures to facilitate the development of intelligent construction professionals. For example, Changsha City in central China's Hunan Province has proposed that it will improve the relevant policies and measures for the cultivation and promotion of intelligent construction talents of the whole chain, and introduce and train more intelligent construction compound talents.