Robotic Hadrian X can build
a house in just two days
Release: UK Construction Media, Chorley, England
We
have seen numerous developments in technology in the
construction industry over the past number of years. The
advancement of Building Information Modelling (BIM), the use of
virtual reality, drones, 3D laser mapping, among others has
revolutionised the industry. The latest technology to be
showcased is Hadrian X, from Australian firm Fastbrick Robotics.
Hadrian X is a robot that can lay 1,000 bricks an hour from a
stationary position and build a house in just two days.
Given the chronic shortage of housing within the Britain and the
government’s ambitious housebuilding programme, the robot would
certainly be in demand.
On their website, Fastbrick Robotics states that it “aims to
make improvements in the areas of speed, accuracy, safety and
waste” for the construction sector.
The Company has released a timelapse video to showcase the
bricklaying skills of the robot.
Rather than using the traditional method of cement to hold the
bricks together, Hadrian X will use a special construction glue
as an adhesive. It is capable of working with bricks of almost
any size and can cut, grind and mill each brick to fit.
The robot is mounted to the back of a truck, enabling it to be
simply transported to construction sites. It has a 92ft boom
that is attached to the main unit and uses its hand or claw to
pick up and lay the bricks following instruction from 3D CAD
software and laser guided system.
The robot brickie is named after the Roman emperor Hadrian, who
in 122 AD began to build a defensive wall that stretched nearly
75 miles long – better known as Hadrian’s Wall.
CEO of Fastbrick Robotics, Mike Pivac, believes that the
technology could transform the construction industry. He said:
“We are a frontier company, and we are one step closer to
bringing fully automated, end to end 3D printing brick
construction into mainstream.
“We’re very excited to be taking the world-first technology we
proved with the Hadrian 105 demonstrator and manufacturing a
state-of-the-art machine.”
So should bricklayers be worried? Mr Pivac said the invention is
nothing personal against the skills of bricklayers but the robot
is an attempt to speed up and improve the housebuilding process.
Speaking about how people might feel their jobs could be under
threat from the advancement of technology in the construction
industry, Director of the RICS Built Professional Groups, Alan
Muse, told UK Construction Online: “There’s always been a fear
of new technology ever since the Luddites; it’s a fact of human
existence. The key point here is if you look at history,
technology has never displaced labour to any great degree. So
actually those fears are unfounded in most cases.
“You can see it with computers; CAD systems and going further
back, you see it with other examples from history. So what
happens is new service streams are developed, which allow
analysis and use of the technology so it’s an unfounded fear
that’s the first thing for the industry to realise.
“Secondly, I think it’s a very exciting change in the industry
that’s looking to deliver better project performance. Most
professionals should support that if they understand the fear of
replacing their job, all be it a fear that is real in terms of
some automated processes does allow potential for new service
streams to develop and it’s the new service streams that people
should be looking at that. They’re the frontiers of our
profession.”