On 6 and 7 May 2026, Bouygues Construction welcomed the ShieldBot Consortium to Guyancourt and Neuilly-sur-Seine (France) for its second General Assembly.
Over two days of technical briefings, discussions and field activities, partners evaluated the progress since the project’s launch in November 2025, and defined the path towards the development of next-generation robotic solutions for sustainable construction, renovation and maintenance.
This is the third time the whole consortium meets in person, after the kick-off meeting in Elgoibar, Spain, and the first general assembly in Nottingham, United Kingdom.
ShieldBot’s Work Package 2 ‘Requirements and KPIs definition’ Completed
The meeting took place at Bouygues Construction’s headquarters in Guyancourt, and was organised by Christian De Nacquard, Research & Development (R&D) Innovation Director, Alexandre Picot, R&D Project Manager, and Florian Dufour, R&D Engineer.
The first day focused on the technical and managerial progress of the project’s work packages. Sessions covered project management and coordination activities, dissemination and exploitation plans, as well as advancements in robotic solutions, advanced robot functionalities, and construction site technologies. Partners also reviewed milestones, deliverables, and priorities for the next six months.
The recent completion of Work Package 2 (WP2) ‘Requirements and KPIs definition’, led by Bouygues Construction, was one of the highlights of the meeting. The consortium further refined and consolidated the industry requirements, as well as the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) definition, which underpin the technical developments planned for the coming stages of the project.
First Visit to a Renovation Site
On the second day, partners visited Les Arches du Carreau, a heavy renovation site conducted by a Bouygues Construction subsidiary especialised in renovation, Bouygues Bâtiment IDF – Rénovation Privée. This construction is located in the Avenue Charles de Gaulle in Neuilly-sur-Seine, linking Paris via the Arc de Triomphe and La Défense.
The renovated building is a mixed-use development comprising office space and the covered Market of Neuilly on the first floor. The project is a typical example of deep refurbishment combined with new construction; indeed, the entire building was stripped back to its core structure, and a four-storey wooden elevation was added.
The visit provided the consortium with a valuable opportunity to observe real construction challenges and discuss how ShieldBot technologies can support safer, more sustainable, and more efficient renovation processes in real-world environments. It was conducted by Thomas Mathieu, Project Director of this site, who offered the partners the possibility to view:
- Strict operational constraints in a dense urban environment such as noise, workings hours, and logistic limitations.
- The scheduling reality of constructions: 22 months schedule to renovate 35.000 sqm.
- The detail of the false ceiling mechanical and electrical (M&E) systems to better understand the InspectionShieldBot.
- Plaster boards dimension for the InnerShieldBot.
- Layers of the façade in detail for the FaçadeShiedlbot.
As highlighted by Miren Zelaia, Project Manager at IDEKO, the organisation coordinating ShieldBot:
“The recent completion of WP2 has allowed us to go deeper into the developments we are going to carry out, and the visit to Bouygues’ renovation site was truly impressive.” – Miren Zelaia, Project Manager at IDEKO.
During this activity, Sandeep Inuganti, PhD Candidate at DFKI and RPTU Kaiserslautern, and Cheng Lu, Research Associate at RPTU Kaiserslautern, scanned of one of the construction areas, preparing future work related to digitalisation and advanced site technologies.
Xin Dong, Associate Professor at the University of Nottingham, also observed that it was stimulating to see the potential impact that robotic technologies can have to address challenges in such complex and demanding construction environments. He highlighted:
“Visiting Bouygues Construction’s renovation site was extremely inspiring for us. It allowed us to see, from the end user’s perspective, the real challenges that our robotic inspection solution needs to address in complex and dynamic construction environments. We believe robotics can not only reduce the manual burden of inspection and make site information collection faster and more consistent, but also open new possibilities for future building design. By reducing the need to design inspection and maintenance access around human limitations, robotic technologies can ultimately provide greater design freedom while supporting safety, quality and sustainability throughout the building lifecycle.” – Xin Dong, Associate Professor at the University of Nottingham.
We would like to thank Bouygues Construction for hosting the meeting and organising the renovation-site visit!