Mining may look very different in the future

Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE) has unveiled a new project that examines future trends in a number of sectors, including construction, mining and infrastructure.

The company has partnered with professional futurists – futurists forecast the coming trends in science, technology and business to help companies understand how the innovations of today will impact the industries of the future.

“In order to build tomorrow, that means having a good sense of what tomorrow may look like,” said Stephen Roy, senior vice president for the Americas, Volvo CE.

“While no one can be 100% certain about what the future has in store, these professional futurists can give us an educated guess based on the research, science and economic trends we see today.”

For construction some of the predictions are:

• Buildings of all sizes will be increasingly modular, utilising more prefabricated elements

• Entire rooms and their furnishings will be built in a specialised location, then installed at the job

• Flying drones will monitor construction on job sites, reporting critical data and visualisations

• Rolling drones will travel up and down building shafts and behind walls to take readings

• New paint polymers will improve air quality while wall sensors monitor for chemicals, smoke and fire

• Entire neighborhoods will be 3D printed, then completed with prefabricated elements