Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Bricklaying Robots and Exoskeletons Are the Future of the Construction Industry (vice.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the conservative-industries dept.

David Silverberg reports via Motherboard: One of the most staid and digitally conservative industries is on the verge of a robotic makeover. The global construction space isn't known for ushering new tech into their workforce, but a painful labour shortage, calls for increased worker safety and more low-cost housing, and the need to catch up to other tech-savvy sectors is giving upstarts in robotics and exoskeletons their big moment. The construction industry isn't immune to this phenomenon, but robots and humans may increasingly work hand-in-hand in industrial sectors, according to Brian Turmail, senior executive director of public affairs at the Associated General Contractors of America. This is especially true when the construction industry en masse uses exoskeleton vests, which aim to assist workers with heavy loads and thus reduce their risk of injury.

The Hadrian X is a bricklaying robot courtesy Australia's Fastbrick Robotics, which uses its 30-meter metal arm to lay bricks at a rate of 1,000 bricks per hour, compared to a human worker's average of 1,000 a day. Due for release in late 2017, Hadrian X can read a 3D CAD model of the house and then it follows those instructions precisely, working day and night. New York-based Construction Robotics has also developed its take on a bricklaying robot. SAM can lay 3,000 bricks a day, and the company said it's about time this industry got a whiff of the change almost every other market has been seeing.

11 of 228 comments (clear)

  1. "a painful labour shortage"?! Bollocks! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    a painful labour shortage

    There's no shortage of workers. There are lots of people around who'd be willing to do this work. It's a shortage of employers willing to pay the wage required to properly compensate people for doing the work. Pay a proper wage and this "labor shortage" will disappear immediately.

    1. Re:"a painful labour shortage"?! Bollocks! by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Actually, there is a surplus of workers who believe their labour is worth more than it really is. That's the real problem and it is being rectified.

      Quit picking on the CEO's.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    2. Re:"a painful labour shortage"?! Bollocks! by Wrath0fb0b · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Pay a proper wage and this "labor shortage" will disappear immediately.

      And how much would you have to charge for a new starter home? Would that price be beyond the budget of most first time aspiring homebuyers?

      The definition of a "proper wage" has always been competition between how much buyers are willing to pay for the final product and how much suppliers are willing to sell their goods/labor. You can't just point at one side and way "raise the wage" without explaining why buyers are going to pay more and what impact that will have on them. At least for me, keeping the barriers to homeownership low seems like a very worthy social goal, one that needs to be balanced against all the other worthy goals we have.

  2. I can see lawyers salivating at the prospect... by Viol8 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "Been hurt at work? Did you exoskeleton suddenly fail when you were lifting 200kg of blocks above your head 5 floors up? Now paralysed and being fed via a tube? Give Constructive Legal a call on ....."

    etc.

  3. This looks incomplete to me by Baron_Yam · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The video in the article shows a rather large device laying bricks according to plan. Fine.. but bricks alone are more or less useless without mortar. And in most cases (at least in my region) bricks are a facing on wood frame construction over a poured concrete basement. This robot doesn't look like it can work on anything but an empty slab of concrete, limiting it to small industrial unit builds.

    Now, the second bricklayer robot linked to from the main article... that looks more interesting. It lays bricks against an existing surface, it's smaller, and it appears to handle mortar.

    I'm still more keen on the giant 3D printers that print layers of concrete, though as you'd expect there's still a long way to go before they can handle ceilings and other structures with large areas lacking support while setting.

    1. Re:This looks incomplete to me by gnick · · Score: 3, Funny

      It's quite common to have an entirely brick house...

      36-24-36

      --
      He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
    2. Re:This looks incomplete to me by swb · · Score: 3, Informative

      I think it's important to differentiate between bricks (dark, historically clay-fired) and concrete blocks.

      I don't think bricks are used for structural features anymore, but concrete block still is used for foundations and sometimes walls. The challenge for concrete block, though, is even in large scale construction where you would use them they already face competition from poured concrete and precast concrete panels. I think both are structurally sounder and allow rapid assembly of large buildings. Most new warehouses or industrial buildings made from concrete are built this way.

      I live in an older neighborhood that's seen a fair amount of teardown new construction and the basement foundations are almost universally made from form-based poured concrete from what I've seen. In the types of construction where concrete block is still used, the scale often seems small -- a limited set of block courses before switching to wood or steel framing.

      I'm not sure how much robotics works in this market.

  4. Brickbots are one thing by bobstreo · · Score: 4, Funny

    The real money will be Trimbots, who's purpose is to cover up all the mistakes of all the other constructionbots.

  5. Re:affordable housing for Millenials (yeah, right) by Mashiki · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Housing prices in most places are caused by two things right now: Super low interest rates, and speculators. So you'd be right, not at all. Hell in Canada, it's so bad that in parts where speculation is running wild(BC, Ontario) that nearly 50% of those houses, apts, and so on are sitting empty.

    I live in a small town, 5 years ago a buddy of mine bought a house here which went for $79k. Today it's worth $390k, the median income is around $42k/year. The market crash when it happens here in Canada is going to be spectacular. It's even worse in places like Toronto which have seen house prices go from $600k last year to $1.1m this year.

    --
    Om, nomnomnom...
  6. Re:affordable housing for Millenials (yeah, right) by Penguinisto · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's not just Canada...

    In parts of the US West Coast, housing speculation has skyrocketed, hard. For instance, in Portland, OR and surrounding areas, a house that you couldn't get rid of for $200k during the housing bust of 2007-2010 (or so) will sell out in less than 48 hours now for $550k.

    Even way out in the sticks where I live (a 75 to 90-minute commute from downtown Portland), I purchased a hidden gem of sorts (a 2 bdrm cabin on 6 acres) in an unincorporated area of Columbia County for $250k back in late 2015. Nowadays I routinely get pestered by real estate vultures wanting me to sell it for $350-$400k (the little house is very nice, but it's mostly for the land, which has 800' of riverfront, and has wilderness areas next door on two sides of the property). In a year, I bet they'll be sniffing around for $500-600k or so if the bubble holds up. Funny thing though, I bought the place to retire in, so, well, screw 'em. I'm staying put.

    --
    Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
  7. Re:A costly mistake... by hey! · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I think you have to ask "why brick at all?" Anything you do with brick you can do with concrete. Architects love concrete for its possibilities, but normal humans prefer the traditional look of brick.

    And while you're talking about 3D printing, concrete as a 3D printing medium is coming along nicely, and is in the very early adopter stage where people who use it do so because it creates things that look different. But early adopters, while crucial in the tech adoption curve, aren't where you make money. You make money selling to the masses, and the masses are conservative.

    Take concrete block construction; this does exactly what you suggest, make the construction cheaper and faster by using larger units. I live in a block house, and it would not be a whit better if it were made from bricks instead, but it'd be worth a lot more because people know concrete block construction is cheaper than brick.

    So the advantage of a robot that lays conventional-looking bricks isn't functional. It's economic. Brick-laying robots create structures that have greater value than ones made by block-laying or concrete extruding robots.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.