To assure the quality of construction works in Hong Kong, the Public Works Laboratories (PWL) of the Geotechnical Engineering Office (GEO) provide an extensive range of materials testing services for the construction industry. These include soil and rock, concrete, steel reinforcing bars and bituminous materials, etc. In the past three years, the PWL have performed about 600,000 tests annually on various construction materials, with about half were concrete and steel reinforcing bars. With the increasing construction volume in the near future, it is expected that the demand for the testing services would keep rising significantly. This brings along to the industry practitioners a challenge of shortage of manpower and yet an opportunity of engaging innovation and technology.
In line with the government policy on providing excellent public services through adoption of innovation and technology, the PWL has taken the lead to develop the first automated concrete cube testing system in the world and to introduce the first automated steel reinforcing bars testing system to Hong Kong. In this Summit, the automated concrete cube testing system is presented. The system has adopted various cutting-edge technologies in Robotics, Internet-of-Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Automation. Through the engagement of the automated testing system, both the efficiency, quality and safety aspects of the testing services would be greatly enhanced. The system also serves as a demonstration of utilizing innovation and technology for industry practitioners to improve the overall efficiency and quality of material testing services.