DISCOVER: Robotics and digital twins for circular construction

Status: Ongoing Built environment

DISCOVER aims to revolutionise the construction sector by leveraging autonomous robotics and digital twin technologies, sustainable material management and comprehensive social impact assessments.

By combining advanced robotics, AI-based data fusion and BIM digital twins, it enables safer, less labour-intensive and more precise pre-demolition assessments.

The project supports contractors, urban miners, demolition experts and policymakers in planning and implementing circular and sustainable deconstruction strategies through a multi-cycle approach, maximising material and components recovery in end-of-life buildings and infrastructures across Europe, this way enhancing the supply and reuse of secondary construction materials.

Efforts to promote material reuse and selective deconstruction in the built environment increasingly depend on digital tools to support informed design, demolition and policy decisions. The main objective of DISCOVER is to develop a digital, autonomous, intelligent, and synchronous system for the continuous identification, optimisation and value extraction of resources from the end-of-use built environment.

“We turn demolition sites into digital twins. So workers are safer, materials flow back into use and circularity becomes the default.”
Joana dos Santos Gonçalves
VITO/EnergyVille Researcher Circularity in the Built Environment

Why this project matters

By combining mobile robotic platforms, advanced sensor fusion techniques (e.g., GPR, LIBS, and imaging) and AI-powered data analysis, the project will enable rapid, non-invasive and labour-efficient assessment of both visible and concealed components.

These digital applications support evidence-based decision-making for end-of-cycle building scenarios throughout the deconstruction process. In doing so, it lays the groundwork for a more systematic integration of circularity, life cycle thinking, and economic value assessment in the future of sustainable deconstruction.

Digital Twin of the demolition site

This innovative system will feed into a multi-dimensional Building Information Modelling (BIM) framework, creating a dynamic Digital Twin of the demolition site. This twin will support automated scan-to-BIM workflows and integrate technical planning, labour productivity and selective demolition strategies, optimised through social, environmental and economic multi-cycle criteria.

Turning existing buildings into material banks

DISCOVER's approach will support key stakeholders (researchers, construction and demolition professionals and policymakers) by delivering actionable, data-driven insights that enhance material circularity, reduce construction and demolition waste, and improve sustainability in demolition activities. By contributing to transforming existing buildings into material banks, the project has the potential to significantly increase the supply of traceable and reusable secondary materials.

Adoption and sectoral impact

To ensure adoption and sectoral impact, DISCOVER will also address the social implications of digital transformation, proposing new professional development tools to upskill workers and support the integration of robotic systems and collaborative BIM tools into standard construction workflows.

Four real-world pilots

The system will be validated through four real-world demonstration events in Spain, Portugal, Poland and Belgium, covering diverse building typologies and ensuring the replicability and scalability of results across Europe. These pilots will showcase DISCOVER’s potential to transform current practices, increasing safety, productivity and circularity in the construction and demolition sector.

Impact and targets

The project pursues the following key impacts:

Optimise deconstruction processes, reduce waste and enhance worker safety
Increase the share of reused components in Europe by up to 20%, reduce work-related injuries by over 25% and lower construction sector emissions by 15%
Reduce construction and demolition waste by 55%

VITO/EnergyVille’s Role in DISCOVER

The VITO/EnergyVille team brings deep expertise in the objective quantification of environmental impacts and circularity in demolition and deconstruction scenarios.

Within DISCOVER, VITO/EnergyVille will contribute in the development of a multi-cycle life cycle assessment (M-LCA) framework, bridging current LCA practices with emerging circularity assessment methods to support urban miners and demolition contractors in the informed decision-making on technically and environmentally optimal end-of-life options for secondary materials and components.

VITO will also support the demonstration in the Flanders region, in collaboration with Tracimat, contributing to improved pre-demolition inventories and enhanced traceability of construction materials.

Meet our partners

The DISCOVER consortium brings together 13 partners from 8 European countries: Belgium, The Netherlands, France, Germany, Greece, Spain, Portugal and Poland.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Framework Programme under Grant agreement ID 101129909

Follow DISCOVER

Stay tuned for more updates on DISCOVER’s progress and upcoming events related to the project by visiting this project page, exploring the project website or following DISCOVER on LinkedIn.

For inquiries or collaboration opportunities, feel free to contact our Researcher, Joana dos Santos Gonçalves.