The Hadrian X bricklaying robot has hit a new speed milestone, laying 200 bricks in just one hour. The massive machine is made by a company called Fastbrick Robotics (FBR), which aims to get the Hadrian X laying up to 1,000 bricks per hour.
Human bricklayers typically lay 300 to 500 bricks per day, with the human speed record being a blistering 914 bricks in one hour.
The structure has been built in a style commonly found in developing markets, including key FBR regions like Mexico, the Middle East, North Africa, the Gulf Cooperation Council region, and Asia.
FBR says its specially-made bricks are lighter, stronger and will minimize waste, though the Hadrian X isn’t limited to these bricks. It can also work with standard bricks in a range of different sizes.
Unlike other bricklaying robots currently on the market like the SAM100 from Construction Robotics, the Hadrian X can lay bricks around corners and build curved walls thanks to its telescoping arm.
For ease of transport, the Hadrian X can also be mounted onto trucks, boats, barges, cranes or more. Once onsite, human operators are needed to set up and load bricks into the Hadrian X, but once it’s up and running, it’s fully autonomous.
The Hadrian X isn’t commercially available quite yet, but the SAM100 is. You can get pricing information on the SAM100 directly from Construction Robotics on its website.
FBR chief executive Mike Pivac said this was the first time FBR had demonstrated the Hadrian X’s ability to build two-storey structures, as well as working with design elements like steel-reinforced concrete columns and suspended concrete slabs.
During the construction, starter bars were inserted into the concrete slab, with couplers used to install rebar through the aligned cores of the blocks and concrete manually poured into the cores. Steel cages were inserted into the block columns built by the Hadrian X, with a concrete pump used to fill the columns.
FBR crane-lifted a precast concrete slab onto the structure the day after the first storey was completed, with the Hadrian X commencing building of the second storey immediately after the crane left FBR’s premises.
FBR said that in large greenfield developments, Hadrian X would continue building the first levels of the adjacent buildings in the development while the second storey slabs were formed and poured, before returning to build the second storey of each structure once the slabs had cured.
Pivac said: “The completion of our first two-storey build is a significant step in the commercialisation of our robotic construction technology.”
