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Building your own home? This bricklaying robot could do it for you

An Australian company is poised to revolutionise the construction industry with a one-armed bricklaying robot capable of building a standard-sized home in two days.

Perth-based technology company Fastbrick Robotics will road test its first Hadrian X construction robot later this year.

The world-first Australian-built bricklaying robot will test its mettle in its first outdoor build, a three-bedroom, two-bathroom structure titled ‘Build1’.

The one-armed robot boasts a 30-metre reach and is capable of working on a range of low-rise residential and commercial scale construction sites, from standard home building sites to multi-unit development. In the right environment and working 24/7, a single machine could produce between 100 and 300 homes per year, the company says.

The Hadrian X is expected to save home buyers time and money by cutting building time and cost. It will also reduce waste, and improve safety and building accuracy, the company says.

“We aim to be cost competitive with current methods, and deliver time savings and efficiencies that will benefit builders and home buyers,” Fastbrick states.

“By reducing construction time and increasing the accuracy of the end product, we aim to reduce the build time of a standard home, which should equate to savings for builders and home buyers.”

The robotic bricklayers are eagerly anticipated around the world, and the company has a memorandum of understanding with Saudi Arabia to build a minimum of 50,000 new homes in the Gulf state by 2022.

According to a United Nations Global Status Report, four billion square metres of new floor space will be constructed in 2018. This includes 30 million new low-rise buildings, 18 million of which will be brick and block buildings.

As many as 150,000 Hadrian X robots would be required in order to replace all wall-building labour in 2018, a global market study by research and analysis firm EY-Parthenon states.

Fastbrick is aiming to tackle two per cent of this global low-rise building market over the next five years, equating to the construction of 600,000 homes per year.

“This analysis demonstrates just how large the global market opportunity for the Hadrian X is, and that this opportunity will continue to grow over the coming decades,” Fastbrick Robotics Chief Executive Officer Mike Pivac said.

“As the only company in the world building construction robots capable of doing what the Hadrian X can do, capitalising on our first mover advantage is crucial.”

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