REVIEW article
Front. Built Environ.
Sec. Construction Management
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvancing Automation in Design and Construction: Practices and ResearchView all 5 articles
Robotics and Automation Safety Risks in Construction
Provisionally accepted
- 1The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Morgantown, WV, United States
- 2National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Washington, United States
- 3Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, United States
- 4Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, United States
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Evolving technologies such as robotics and automation have the potential to transform the American construction industry. While these technologies improve productivity and safety, they also introduce new safety risks to construction workplaces. This study conducts a scoping review to identify and analyze safety risks associated with robotics and automation in construction. Literature data was collected from the Scopus database using keywords and snowballing approaches. Following PRISMA-ScR, A total of 104 peer-reviewed articles and 33 industry and government reports between 2015 and 2025 were selected based on criteria related to construction robots and safety implications. From the literature data, robotic applications were categorized into eight groups and safety risks were categorized into four categories. A cross-cutting analysis found that mechanical and psychosocial risks dominated across all robotics and automation technologies. Risk mitigation strategies were proposed based on the analysis results. Integrating worker safety and health priorities early in the workplace transformation process, including risk mitigation strategies such as job hazard analysis, while applying the hierarchy of controls, and prevention through design strategies for each of these technologies, may help protect and enhance construction worker safety and health.
Keywords: Automation, Construction, risk, Robotics, Safety
Received: 24 Jun 2025; Accepted: 23 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Earnest, trout, Liang and Castleberry. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Gary Earnest
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.