Capable of building 150 houses in a year.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: An Australian engineer has developed a robot that can build houses in two hours, and could work autonomously 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to build houses for people, potentially revolutionizing the bricklaying industry.
The robot, called Hadrian, is capable of laying 1000 bricks an hour, allowing it to put up 150 houses a year. While human house builders have to work for four to six weeks to put a house together, and have to take weekends and holidays, Hadrian never has to take a break and works a remarkably quicker pace.
Per the Daily Mail:
The robot has a [92 foot long boom] that is connected to its main body. At the end is a robotic “hand”’ that can grab bricks, pick them up, and place them down in sequence. A 3D computer-aided design (CAD) is used to work out the shape of the house or structure required, and the robot then calculates where each brick should go. Mortar or adhesive is also deliver under pressure to the hand of the arm and applied to the brick, so no external human element is required. It can even leave spaces for wiring and plumbing, and scans and cuts the bricks if they need to be re-shaped.
The Independent noted that Hadrian could snatch the jobs of human bricklayers, but its creator, Mark Pivac, told PerthNow that it was a response to the lack of available workers — the average age of the industry is getting much higher, and the robot might be able to help alleviate the gap in workers.
According to the Daily Mail, Pivac noted that he had “nothing against bricklayers,” and simply wanted to improve the process in which houses were made. He stated that his robot could help attract younger people to the profession.
The project has been ten years in the making and has had $7 million invested in it thus far. Pivac’s intention is to market his product first in Western Australia before expanding to the rest of the country, and eventually, the world.