Meet Hadrian: The Robot That Can Build A House in Just Two Days

by Monica Joshi

It takes about four to six weeks of backbreaking work to build a typical home. An engineer in Perth, Australia, wants to change all that. His robot, Hadrian, can work 24/7/365 to raise the brick shell of a new home in just two days.

Hadrian, named after the Roman Emperor who built a wall in Northern Britain, can lay up to 1000 bricks an hour. Since it's programmed with a building plan, it can calculate the location of each and every brick.

First, it creates a 3D computer-aided design (CAD) laying program of a house or structure, then it calculates the location of every brick and creates a program that is used to cut and lay the bricks in sequence from a single, fixed location.

Following the calculation, it uses its 28 foot arm to secure the bricks in place with mortar. After it has been set up, Hadrian can work for a solid 24 hours straight, not taking into account possible mechanical failures or power loss.

Mark Pivac, the aeronautic and mechanical engineer behind the creation, said that:

“People have been laying bricks for about 6000 years and ever since the industrial revolution, they have tried to automate the bricklaying process."

Its manipulator arm can place bricks at the speed of constructing about 150 houses per year. Hadrian has an accuracy to within one hundreth of an inch. The robot is powered by either a generator or by local power sources.

What does this mean for the future of bricklayers? They can soon expect to be replaced by the machine and many others like it.

In a presentation from Fastbrick Robotics, which made Hadrian, they estimate that paying for the labor from skilled human bricklayers adds tens of billions of dollars to home construction costs each year. Hadrian isn’t just a robot that does a cool job, it’s a robot that will actively replace human workers.

Interestingly, with regards to the possible jobs lost, Mr. Pivac said:

“We have absolutely nothing against bricklayers. The problem is the average age of bricklayers is going up and it’s difficult to attract new young people to the trade.”

As the bricklayers add to the cost of the house, Hadrian can be seen as a benefit to the new wave of home owners who can see real estate prices going down. Furthermore, organizations like Habitat for Humanity could use Hadrian to build cheap, affordable housing for the homeless.

Photo Credit: higyou/Shutterstock