Hong Kong scientists create bar-bending robot that can make life easier for construction workers

The Communist Party’s third plenum in July set the country’s long-term direction on economic policy, with strategic industries such as AI and biomedicine targeted. Traditional enterprises will also be encouraged to transform with the help of technology. The Post looks at innovations by up-and-coming Hong Kong scientists who are already making waves and may even be the next big winners, such as tech giants DJI and SenseTime.

In the last of a five-part series, Sammy Heung talks to the scientists behind a robot that can tackle mundane but challenging construction tasks to help address the industry’s personnel shortage. Read our previous stories here.

Bending steel reinforcement bars is a back-breaking, sweaty job on a construction site that not many people want to do but experts at a Hong Kong university have invented a robot to do the work.

With the press of a button, the robot created by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) can move along the reinforcement rods, also known as rebar, and automatically tie them together at the intersections of pieces.

“While the salary of a rebar tying worker is very high in Hong Kong, their working conditions are relatively taxing,” said Li Haozhen, project lead at the university’s Hong Kong Centre for Construction Robotics.

“It is pretty hard to hire workers now, especially with manpower shortages in the city.”