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Our team’s research focuses on three pillars: Robotic Construction, Intelligent Design and Sustainable Structures.

Robotic Construction

Under this theme, our group is aiming at automating the rebar cage assembly process, a highly repetitive, labor-intensive, and time-consuming task that is universal around the world.

Please take a peek into our work with the following video. We will provide complete projects’ descriptions after publications (many under review).

255.MP4

Selected publications (shown in a recommended reading sequence, supervised student underlined):

  1. Zhao, C., Chen, Y-Y., Sun, T., Fan, W., Sun, X-Y., Shao, Y., Guo, G-Q., Wang, H-L., (2025), Robotic motion planning for autonomous construction of building structures, Automation in Construction, 171, 105993.
  2. Sun, T., Fan, Q-P., Shao, Y. (2025), Deep learning-based rebar detection and instance segmentation in images, Advanced Engineering Informatics, 65, 103224.
  3. Sun, T., Han, B-N., Rusinkiewicz, S., Shao, Y. (2025), Rebar grasp detection using a synthetic model generator and domain randomization, Automation in Construction, 176, 106252.

Intelligent Design

Under this theme, our group is aiming at facilitating the design process of civil infrastructure through the help of advanced vision and large-language models. The design process of civil infrastructure can be really tedious that involve numerous repetitive and low-skill operations, which urgently need work to automate. We will provide complete projects’ descriptions after publications (many under review!)

Sustainable Structures

Under this theme, our group follows the principle of circular economy:

  1. Reduce: we aims to reduce the initial material usage by adopting high-performance material, such as UHPC, as well as structural optimization techniques
  2. Resilience: we enhance the resilience to disaster and deterioration by innovative usages of high-performance materials, such as UHPC and GFRP
  3. Reuse: we work on projects that design structures with engineered features to be easily reusable. Therefore, if we need to change the function or height of buildings, we don’t need to demolish and build new structures. We can maximally reuse existing structural members.

R.jpg

UHPC Structural Design

Project 1:

Improving the Sustainability and Ductility of Reinforced UHPC (ultra-high performance concrete) Beams

Background:

Goals:

Research framework:

BEAM.jpg

Featured results:

BEAM RESULTS.jpg

Compared to current practice, the new beam design can increase the strength and ductility by 44% and 114%, respectively, while reducing the initial costs and embodied carbon by 10% and 15%, respectively.

Selected publications (shown in a recommended reading sequence):

  1. Shao, Y., Billington, S.L. (2019). Utilizing Full UHPC Compressive Strength in Steel Reinforced UHPC Beams, 2nd International Interactive Symposium on UHPC, Albany, NY. (First-Place Paper Award)
  2. Shao, Y., Billington, S.L. (2019). Predicting the Two Predominant Flexural Failure Paths of Longitudinally Reinforced High-performance Fiber-reinforced Cementitious Composite Structural Members. Engineering Structures, 199:109581.
  3. Shao, Y., Billington, S.L. (2022). Impact of UHPC Tensile Behavior on Steel Reinforced UHPC Flexural Behavior. Journal of Structural Engineering, 148(1): 04021244.
  4. Shao, Y., Billington, S.L. (2021). Impact of cyclic loading on longitudinally-reinforced UHPC flexural members with different fiber volumes and reinforcing ratios. Engineering Structures, 241:112454.
  5. Shao, Y., Hung, C-C., Billington, S.L. (2021). Gradual Crushing of Steel Reinforced HPFRCC Beams:Experiments and Simulations. Journal of Structural Engineering, 147(8): 04021114.
  6. Shao, Y., Tich, K. L., Boaro, S. B., Billington, S.L. (2022). Impact of Fiber Distribution and Cyclic Loading on the Bond Behavior of Steel-reinforced UHPC. Cement and Concrete Composites: 104338.(PDF)
  7. Shao Y., Ostertag C.P. (2022) Bond-slip behavior of steel reinforced UHPC under flexure: Experiment and prediction. Cement and Concrete Composites. 133: 104724.
  8. Shao, Y., Parks, A., Ostertag, C.P. (2023) Carbon Footprint Between Steel-Reinforced Concrete and UHPC Beams. Journal of Structural Engineering, 149 (3), 06023001.
  9. Fan, J., Shao, Y., Bandelt, M. J., Adams, M. P., & Ostertag, C. P. (2024). Sustainable reinforced concrete design: The role of ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) in life-cycle structural performance and environmental impacts. Engineering Structures, 316, 118585.

Project 2:

Light-weight and High-performance Façade for Energy-Efficient Buildings

Background:

Goals:

Research framework:

FACADE.jpg

Featured results:

FACADE RESULTS.jpg

Relative to two commonly-adopted façade designs (EPS sandwich façade and solid concrete façade),

the new façade design reduces the embodied carbon by over 35% while increasing the thermal resistance

by over 102%. Meanwhile, the new façade is more than 38% lighter than the other two options.

Selected publication:

  1. Shao Y., Parks A., Ostertag C.P. (2022) Lightweight Concrete Façade with Multiple Air Gaps for Sustainable and Energy-efficient Buildings in Singapore. Building and Environment. 223: 109463.

Equipment and Resources

Robotics

Servers