Wates adopts AI on London housing estate

Wates Residential is using helmet cameras to monitor work on the Park East housing estate redevelopment in Erith, London.Footage of the site will be recorded to monitor construction progress and analysed using Buildots, an Israeli artificial intelligence (AI) technology.The technology acts as an automatic quality police, spotting potential problems that humans might miss.Wates Residential is redeveloping 1970s council housing tower blocks for Orbit housing association.Buildots’ AI algorithms automatically validate images captured by hardhat-mounted 360° cameras, detecting gaps between the original design, scheduling, and the construction site’s reality. Buildots claims that it speeds up construction and ultimately reduces costs.According to Buildots, it enables Wates to see all facets and details of Park East in a single location, ensuring that working documents such as the fit-out matrix and key date schedules can be trusted by all. The platform also allows the planning team to understand the reality of what is happening and helps the commercial team with handling applications of payment – without having to visit the site.