Robots have slowly integrated themselves into our modern lives and now do a lot of helpful things. However, one thing robots haven't been able to do is lay bricks, due to the kind of labor involved.
In fact, bricklaying hasn't changed in thousands of years: it's still something done completely by hand. It's backbreaking work, though, and often results in worker injuries.
However, an Australian engineer has a solution: a robot bricklayer that autonomously lays bricks faster than any human ever could. In fact, this robot can build a house in just two days.
The robot, called Hadrian (after Hadrian's Wall), is the effort of 10 years of research and development by Mark Pivac, the engineer responsible for its invention. It works by using a 3D CAD design of a house to determine where every brick goes and then uses its software to cut and lay the bricks. It's also efficient: Hadrian can do all this from the job site and lay the bricks once they're measured and cut.
The fully-automated robot is even able to scan to use the CAD design to determine where bricks need to be measured and cut differently do to things like entryway points for pipes, electrical wires and phone lines.
In addition, unlike human workers, Hadrian can work 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It doesn't require a vacation or sick time.
"We're at a technological nexus where a few different technologies have got to the level where it's now possible to do it, and that's what we've done," said Pivac to Perth Now.
However, Hadrian isn't looking to replace an entire bricklaying workforce. The problem is that there is a steady decline in that workforce, meaning that there's more need than ever for someone to do the bricklaying duties.
"We have absolutely nothing against bricklayers," says Pivac. "The problem is the average age of bricklayers is going up and it's difficult to attract new young people to the trade."
Investment company DMY Capital Limited believes in Hadrian, so much so that the company agreed to acquire all rights to Hadrian, a project that's already seen about $5.5 million dollars spent on it.
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