Hadrian, a bricklaying robot by Fast Brick Robotics. With the cost of housing rising, many countries are trying to meet a demand for affordable housing. In Australia, Mark Pivac has created an automated, bricklaying robot that can answer this demand by building a brick house in only 2 days. (via Fast Brick Robotics.)
The more time passes, the more convinced I become that the movie iRobot will become like Déjà vu for future generations. Hopefully Will Smith will still be alive to save us all from robot domination… However, I must say that this robot is still pretty cool, if it can diminish the cost of housing. An inventor and engineer from Perth, Australia has created a brick-laying robot that can build the brick shell of a house in just 2 days!
The inventor, Mark Pivac, came up with the idea after a bricklaying crisis in Perth in 2005. Since then, he’s been trying to find a way to automate bricklaying and prevent future crises. While there continues to be a steady demand for brick building in Australia, the age of bricklayers increasing and youth are not taking up the trade. Pivac’s answer is a robot named ‘Hadrian,’ after the Roman Hadrian’s Wall which lies to the north of England. This robot can lay about 1000 bricks per hour.
The robot is fastened to a 28m, articulated, telescopic boom which allows it the necessary mobility to build, like a 3D printer. There is also pressurized mortar or adhesive that can be fed to the head of the robot and applied to the bricks as it lays them. More than simply laying bricks, the robot is also able to measure the bricks, cut them to the correct size, lay them in the correct sequence, and rout bricks for future electrical and piping. The robot also checks for quality along the way.
Hadrian works off of a 3D CAD program that creates a schematic for every brick. The program also creates code that allows the robot to cut and lay bricks in sequence, starting from a single starting brick. Hence, the process is much like the first 3D printers. Who knows what happens if it loses its place, but Pivac claims that Hadrian can build with 0.5 mm accuracy and estimates that it could build 150 houses per year. Hadrian can also work 24/7 to finish the project, so the days of arguing with construction workers may be over. Although Pivac still says that operators will be necessary, along with other workers to put in necessary comforts like electricity and water.
Creating Hadrian has cost a pretty penny. Pivac and his team have invested over 7 million so far on creating Hadrian under their company, Fast Brick Robotics. However, their efforts have not gone un-noticed. An investment company called Cygnet Capital Group announced their financial backing for Fast Brick Robotics in June 2015, under a conditional agreement to acquire 100 percent of the company (yikes!). Thus far Pivac and his team have received most of their financial support from federal grants and from industry leaders like Brickworks Ltd. The new backing of Cygnet should get Hadrian up and running in Western Australia and then bring their invention to the rest of the world.
Political leaders in Australia are hoping that inventions like Hadrian can meet the demand for affordable housing. While Pivac and the team may no longer own their company in the coming years as Cygnet Capital Group acquires it, I’m sure that we may see these bricklaying robots at constructions sites in the coming years.
C
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