Digitalization and automation in construction project’s life-cycle: a review

Abstract

The fourth construction industry revolution (i.e., Construction 4.0), driven by the fourth industrial revolution, introduces technological novelties to the construction industry in the direction of utilizing automation and digitalization potential. Various levels of maturity and adoption of these technologies have been identified separately in previous studies. In this study, a state-of-the art literature review is presented with the aim of determining the genesis and current levels of digitalization and automation, as well as their interoperability, among the main construction projects’ life-cycle phases. The results revealed that the construction project life-cycle phases are indeed at significantly different digitalization and automation levels. The initiation phase was found to be at a low level of digitalization and automation, the design and planning phase at a high level of digitalization with a low level of automation, and the execution phase at low-level digitalization with a higher level of automation. Since the topic is continuously developing, this research could be conducted in the near future to determine the advancements in comparison to the current conclusions.