The 5 major trends of CES 2022 that should impact the building and city sectors

In this context, Construction Tech has created various actions such as the Challenge Start-Ups Construction Tech, which has just revealed the winners of its 4th edition, the Directory of Start-Ups regularly enriched or the Construction Tech space installed every two years at the BATIMAT show.

Construction Tech® also deciphers the major trends in the building sector and the impact of innovations on market developments through regular observatories and studies. In this context, Construction Tech offers an analysis of emerging trends from the CES in Las Vegas each year.

Despite a difficult health context, the event was held from January 5 to 8, 2022 and once again brought new ideas and concepts to life.

There is no doubt that the current health crisis has accelerated certain developments, but the strong climate challenges are also at the origin of a proposal for promising technologies. Construction Tech unveils the 5 key trends identified at CES 2022, the applications of which will have profound repercussions on the use of buildings but also more broadly on the way of living in the city.

Smart Home 2.0: A small revolution thanks to new communication protocols

Until now, one of the main obstacles to the deployment of home automation has been the great diversity of communication protocols that are incompatible with each other. The dream of a single language that would allow each solution to interact with another, or even with several other solutions, seems within reach, however.

A wireless communication protocol, Thread has already been adopted by many large groups such as Amazon, Belkin, Schneider Electric, Aqara (a subsidiary of Xiaomi)... who took advantage of CES 2022 to announce it. However, Thread does not include an application layer, a domain of Matter which can be transported by multiple compatible networks such as Thread but also by WiFi or Bluetooth for example. Matter thus makes it possible to make connected objects of different brands compatible with each other. For its part, BLE or Bluetooth Low Energy offers great ease of use for users and works perfectly for device-by-device configuration in a home.

The race for the most powerful AI and robots

If AI offers a wide field to the imagination, it is also a great opportunity to help on a daily basis. The multiplicity of uses but also the work of developers and manufacturers to offer solutions accessible to as many people as possible now make it possible to envisage a massive deployment of this technology.

Very concrete examples were spotted at CES 2022 in Las Vegas. Thus, the French start-up Niryo markets robots intended for education, training and R&D in order to meet the needs of a booming 4.0 industry. Still in the industrial automation sector, ITRI is launching an intelligent robotic arm equipped with 3D captures. For its part, Nvidia offers an open platform, Omniverse, designed for virtual collaboration and real-time simulations. A theme also developed by Ansys, which develops AI to simulate noise, vibration and other environmental hazards on electric vehicles. Solutions whose use in BIM and design seems possible.

The healthtech boom

As a corollary to an ongoing health crisis, smart home solutions linked to residents' health concerns are multiplying. Improving air quality, protecting people's health, preventing the spread of germs... so many problems that find their answers in the implementation of appropriate solutions, such as the "touchless" functionality implemented by many manufacturers for their products such as the Moen Smart Faucet. The air quality of homes and offices is also a key issue that manufacturers are taking up by offering many air purifiers for all types of spaces, such as at LG with the PuriCare Aero Tower or the Lod solution. Protect, whose promise is to disinfect the air at 99% thanks to the UV-C produced by its lights.

Climate and environment: the promise of low-carbon, locally produced all-electric

Energy production solutions are finally making a name for themselves at CES 2022. Directly linked to concerns related to the climate and the environment, proposals around energy production and management are experiencing a real boom. Thus, Héole's photovoltaic sails are capable of supplying energy to boats, but also to buildings and are perfectly suited to bioclimatic construction. For hydrogen production, Doosan is developing a “Trigen hydrogen fuel cell” production system based on the pyrolysis of recycled plastic. For its part, Schneider Electric offers an intelligent electrical panel, “Wiser Energy Center”, which makes it possible to collect and analyze household electricity consumption data to better manage and optimize it. Finz, a French start-up, is developing a decision support solution for the financing of water, energy or climate adaptation projects in the context of smart cities/ports/agriculture by predicting human and climatic cognitive risks , geopolitics, a blockchain guarantee and the measurement of the carbon impact.

E-mobility arrives on site

Mobility is still a key topic at CES 2022. It is also linked to the development of electric vehicles and is gaining ground, particularly on construction sites where the search for more virtuous work is gradually becoming essential. A 100% electric vehicle, Pickwheel also has the particularity of being steered only with the feet, thus freeing the hands of operators for other tasks. Still in this segment of electric utilities, Goupil develops electric vehicles adapted to different activities (maintenance, waste collection, logistics, etc.). Who says electric vehicles says need to recharge. ChargePoly has created a fast, multi-vehicle charging solution.

For Guillaume Loizeaud, Director of the Batimat show: “The issues related to the transformation of the act of building and housing offer a real opportunity to tech giants but also to entrepreneurs. As we can see, these new technologies, which initially appear on the consumer markets, emerge two to three years later on the professional markets. We observe these phenomena for AI, robotics, mobility or contactless control. Environmental issues also play their part in the development of solutions around the decarbonization of energy. On the smart home side, the opening of communication protocols and their interoperability widens the field of potential. Of course, we cannot ignore the global pandemic that broke out in 2020 and which also accelerated a number of developments, particularly in the healthtech market. »