Technology would be used during insulating procedures in hard-to-access underfloor spaces

A robot has received BBA accreditation to work on UK construction sites in what is being claimed as an industry first.

The ‘SprayBot’ is not fully autonomous, since it needs to be controlled by an operator. It would be used during insulating procedures in hard-to-access underfloor spaces.

The firm behind the technology, South London-based Q-Bot, said that far from destroying jobs “these robots create them, requiring two skilled operatives to control the robot and manage the installation”.

Q-Bot said it has developed a range of intelligent processes, “making the retrofit of existing homes cheaper, faster and less disruptive, while improving energy efficiency and the quality of construction work compared to the manual, labour intensive alternatives”.

In this case, the robots crawl under old homes and insulate the floor from below – as they can fit into floor voids which are typically only a foot deep.