As someone who follows construction technology, and someone who just happens to be from Perth, this is great to see. There are a number of "brick placing" robots starting to pop-up, most however seem to be a little... lets say "delicate" for the battleground that is a construction site. (I'm thinking the "Flight assisted Architecture" video, using swarms of drones to place lightweight blocks, and a modified car factory arm on treads, which I unfortunately can't find the link for right now.)<p>Retrofitting this onto an existing crawler chassis makes this more practical. The major issues I see in implementation are unfortunately legislative. Most suburban/residential construction sites -considering these are the most likely to utilize it - have quite strict noise restrictions. A diesel engine running 24/7 is going to upset a few neighbors.<p>Also, from a Health and Safety perspective. Residential construction is very fractured when it comes to trades, and at the best of times, difficult to coordinate. I would imagine either a physical exclusion zone, or a temporal one while this thing is operating since it appears to be semi-autonomous, making it difficult to have others on site around it and maintain safety.<p>All things I'm sure the inventor has considered over development, but challenges none the less.
Wouldn't it be easier to automate building using something other than brick? Probably bricklaying started because bricks were small enough a person could carry and lay them individually (now they are ornamental of course rather than strictly functional). With a machine there isn't the weight/size restraint of a human laborer.<p>I worked one summer on a concrete crew building tip up slab buildings... big structures like a Costco or trucking depot. How it worked was the foundation was poured, then the forms for the walls (one or two walls at a time) were placed on top of the foundation. A spray to prevent the concrete wall from bonding the the floor was applied, and the wall was poured directly on top of the floor and then tilted up by a crane. Then the next wall was poured on top of the floor and the process repeated. The whole system seemed much more efficient then laying blocks and a building shell could be assembled very quickly.<p>While a cool invention, this robot bricklayer seems something like a computerized horse carriage. It seems a paradigm shift is in order to really automate building. Poured in place concrete may be a more efficient method for automation.
If the article is correct, that the robot is parked in a single location and reaches across the building site to place bricks, then it can only be used for unreinforced masonry structures. Perfectly reasonable in West Australia, but not a great idea in places that get earthquakes.<p>I wonder how much modification it would need to be able to build brick cladding around a timber frame structure.<p>When I was working for a builder we would show up on-site after the foundation pad had set, and unload pre-nailed frames and trusses from a truck. Stand up and fasten the frames, top-plate and roof trusses. Usually we would put the ceiling battens in at this stage. Another contractor would put the roof on, then we would paper (or tyvek etc) the outside of the house, and install the windows and doors. The soffit under the eaves would go in. Then the brick layers would clad the outside at more or less the same time the plumbers and electricians were doing the pre-wire/pre-plumb.<p>With the eaves already in place, even a mobile robot is going to have trouble placing the top several rows of bricks.<p>On the other hand it should be possible to change the build order, in which case the only major change to the brick placing head would be an additional mechanism to install the anchors that attach the bricks to the wooden frame.
Article is missing a lot of facts that are easily found on the companies website which of course they don't link to. <a href="http://www.fastbrickrobotics.net/" rel="nofollow">http://www.fastbrickrobotics.net/</a><p>Also reminds me of the brick paving machine: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLDP6s5FPCk" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLDP6s5FPCk</a>
Bricklaying is a semi-skilled job, it's not just a matter of placing bricks on top of each other. You need to have a perfect mix of cement and the corner pieces need to be custom fit, usually by breaking full blocks down to side with a lump hammer. All of this detail is glossed over so as usual I'm hesitant about saying that this is much more than a pick and place robot.
This seems like the missing link to the concept of 3D printing large structures. Printing concrete in layers from the slab up to make walls seemed like it was jumping the gun a little. This seems entirely more reasonable - the finished structure will look more uniform and be made quicker as the primary material is formed offsite and delivered in bulk, ready to use.
Is it like this for other cities? Strange random world-class inventions popping up out of the suburbs with no warning.<p>We've got a thriving startup ecosystem that seems to be getting known around town and yet we still get people appearing on the front page of HN that we've never heard of.
Another interesting piece of automation: I tried to find a video of the robot in action, but a search for Hadrian bricklayer on youtube only found videos that played a text-to-speech summary of the article and a slideshow of pictures.
At least where I live, houses are not built from brick, they are made from cinderblock, with a facing (skin) of brick.<p>Not sure if this is because of labor, or cost or materials or some other reason.<p>They should extend this machine to also lay cinderblock.