It’s no wonder Australia’s biggest brick maker has upped its stake in a Perth based robotics company that leave its human competitors in the dust. The robot can place 174 blocks in just one hour (~2000 standard brick equivalents) – achieving in 48 hours what it takes a human crew to achieve in four to six weeks of hard labour.
Patented by cousins Mark and Mike Pivac in 2005 (more than 10 years after Mark first dreamed up the idea in 1994) FBR’s mobile dynamically stabilised robot built its first residence in Perth in 2020, building two home structures simultaneously side by side.
In the same year, its Hadrian X robot built a community centre in Western Australia with Archistruct, and also completed construction on its first two storey structure.
It also entered into a partnership with one of WA’s largest developers, Inspired Homes, signing a $630,000 contract for walls and slabs of 16 two-storey homes.
The company, previously known as Fastbrick Robotics was listed in 2015 via a $5 million reverse takeover involving DMY Capital, later changing its name to FBR Limited
After 100 prototypes and 150 engineers and millions of dollars spent on development, the company is set to disrupt the building industry globally, setting up US and European entities and with 2 projects in the pipeline including in the United Arab Emirates.
And Australia’s largest brick manufacturer Brickworks recently increased its shareholding to an undisclosed amount in ASX-listed robotic bricklayer.
The next generation of robots Hadrian X will lay 500 blocks per hour and is currently in assembly to be site-ready in 2023 – and the company is working on developing a 3D concrete printer and a roofing robot system.
Ultimately, one of the goals of the company is to make safe and sufficient housing accessible for everyone, chief commercial officer Kiel Chivers told The Fifth Estate.
“There’s dire chronic and systemic housing shortages,” he said.
“Construction has a lot of safety challenges… We like to say [this robot is] safer, faster, more accurate, and less wasteful.”
How does it work?
With a dynamically stabilised telescopic arm extending 28 metres into the air, the Hadrian X calculates the location of every block from a 3D computer-aided design (CAD) model, and then cuts and lays blocks in sequence from a single, fixed location.
“It’s a road-legal robot that’s self contained, a full end to end solution,” Chivers said.
“You put pellets in the back, and the robot cuts [it] into [blocks], transports them up the beam and places them with precision.
“The ideal situation is we have humans there to oversee it, and they load pallets and then can sit there and have a cup of coffee and watch it.”
Labour shortages, construction waste feed automation race
It’s not the first automated construction tech to hit the market, with a few other companies vying for the top spot – amid fears that the technology could displace workers in the construction industry.
But Chivers said that amid labour shortages, the robot had the potential to make work cheaper, faster, and less wasteful – and avoid expensive delays that are costing the industry due to a severe shortage of skilled workers.
“We want bricklayers to use this technology – the market is so phenomenally huge there’s no major issue of displacement for anyone,” he said.
“Covid shone a light on our reliance on human labour and imported labour… People’s minds have been opened to changing the way we do things.”
The tech can currently build up to two storeys high, but the next generation will be capable of reaching up to four storeys high, and significantly reduce construction waste.
“We completed a build with zero onsite waste, we’re at the forefront of environmental improvement and change and we can still improve from here,” Chivers said.
“Working with robots is pretty cool… There’s nothing like it in the world, it’s energising seeing this cutting edge tech.”
Thanks Jack Povey
“As a bricky that’s seen this thing work first hand and the amount of “behind the scenes men” needed to keep this thing running is ridiculous and the sheer amount of clear level space needed to operate is in no way achievable in new housing developments.”
Classic old thinking and fear of the future type of comment…
As a bricky that’s seen this thing work first hand and the amount of “behind the scenes men” needed to keep this thing running is ridiculous and the sheer amount of clear level space needed to operate is in no way achievable in new housing developments.