Mason Robot Folds a House in Two Days

The fact that robots can lay brickwork is not news at all. However, the capabilities of the Hadrian industrial robot ("Adrian") from the Australian company Fastbrick Robotics deserve special attention. This is the first specialized mason robot in the world that can lay out the walls of an ordinary country house in two days.

Working almost completely autonomously 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, such a robot will erect a whole village of 150 houses in a year. It is unlikely that even a brigade of workers can do this. They can not be compared with Adrian in masonry speed: 1000 bricks per hour. Not to mention the 24-hour shifts and work without days off.

The creator of "Adriana" is a local inventor from the city of Perth in western Australia, a mechanical engineer and aircraft engineer Mark Pivac. He became interested in creating such a robot in 2005, during the crisis of masons in the city.

“People have been laying bricks for about 6,000 years, and since the Industrial Revolution they constantly tried to automate this process,” says Mark Pivach. “We have reached a technological level when several different technologies have developed enough to make possible what we have done.”

Adrian is named after the famous 117 km long Roman defensive wall to prevent barbarian raids from the north (Adrian rampart). The robot is planned to be put into commercial operation first in the state of Western Australia, then throughout the country, and then in other countries. One can imagine how thousands of such robots are building houses in the Russian countryside.

The control computer calculates the actions of the arm-manipulator, based on the existing CAD-model of the house or other object. It calculates the location of each brick and makes an algorithm for cutting and stacking bricks. A 28-meter telescopic arm can reach the farthest corner of the structure.

Pivach’s invention has already attracted the attention of investors. This week it was announced that investment company DMY Capital Limited is buying a 100% stake in startup Fastbrick Robotics, which he founded with his brother.

So far, $ 7 million has been spent on Adrian’s development. The startup has received substantial assistance from grants from the federal government and major construction companies such as Brickworks Ltd.