A multi-dimensional failure factor affecting the on-site adoption of construction robots

Construction robots continue to draw significant interest, yet real-world deployments face persistent failures. Despite reported benefits and technological progress, there is still no systematic, evidence-based understanding of why robots underperform on actual construction sites. This study reviews 75 peer-reviewed field deployments (2016–2025) identified from the Web of Science to examine which failure factors recur and how they vary by construction domain, activity, and functionality. Each case is coded to reveal how technical failures are intertwined with organizational, environmental, and human factors. Five dominant failure dimensions emerge: environmental challenges (n = 45), system integration issues (n = 44), hardware limitations (n = 39), scalability and cost constraints (n = 15), and human–robot interaction issues (n = 14). The first three dominate, highlighting gaps in adaptability, interoperability, and mechanical robustness, as well as site-level infrastructure and workforce readiness. Based on these findings, this study proposes a dual-level mitigation framework spanning robot-level and site-level strategies to guide more scalable and successful deployment.