Robotics and AI for prefabrication of steel building components: Systematic review and future roadmap

The increasing demand for precision, productivity, and safety in construction has accelerated adoption of robotics and AI in steel building components prefabrication. This systematic review synthesizes 134 peer-reviewed studies to evaluate the state of robotics, AI, and digital technologies, specifically BIM, DfMA, and digital twins, across design, manufacturing, and assembly workflows for steel prefabrication. Using a five-dimensional Scope-Mode-Advantage-Restriction-Transition (SMART) analytical framework, the review characterizes major research themes, technological distribution, and associated performance outcomes. It highlights domination of robotic welding, additive manufacturing, and vision-guided inspection, but limited multi-robot deployment and integration with digital technologies. The review identifies critical methodological and operational limitations in the state-of-the-art and formulates a comprehensive roadmap for advancing steel prefabrication through five sequential research thrusts. Future opportunities include unified BIM-to-fabrication data pipelines, generalizable AI models for adaptive process control, scalable multi-robot platforms, and integrated real-time digital twin workflows to enable an intelligent robotic steel prefabrication ecosystem.