Construction 4.0: A Literature Review

Eric Forcael, Isabella Ferrari, Alexander Opazo-Vega and Jesús Alberto Pulido-Arcas
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Eric Forcael: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Universidad del Bío-Bío, Concepción 4051381, Chile
Isabella Ferrari: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Universidad del Bío-Bío, Concepción 4051381, Chile
Alexander Opazo-Vega: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Universidad del Bío-Bío, Concepción 4051381, Chile
Jesús Alberto Pulido-Arcas: Department of Building Construction, Universidad del Bío-Bío, Concepción 4051381, Chile

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 22, 1-28

Abstract: The construction industry is experiencing changes in its processes and work methods, and the advancement of new technologies in recent decades has led to a new concept known as Construction 4.0 , coined in 2016 in Germany. Since its definition is still diffuse, it was deemed necessary to conduct a review on the publications in this field to grasp how this concept is being understood. For that purpose, a bibliometric analysis was conducted among 260 research articles using seven keywords. The results reveal that the number of publications is growing exponentially, with the USA, the UK, and China being leaders in this field; besides, four technologies are essential to understand Construction 4.0 at present time: 3D printing, big data, virtual reality, and Internet of Things. The results of this review suggest that further reviews should be conducted every 3 years to grasp the rapid evolution of Construction 4.0 .

Keywords: Construction 4.0; bibliometric analysis; new materials; 3D printing; artificial intelligence and robotics; big data; virtual and augmented reality; Building Information Modeling (BIM); internet of things (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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