While 3D printing promises drastically lower construction times, the newly-developed Hadrian X automaton is capable of erecting a house in less than 2 days. Designed by the engineers at Australia’s Fastbrick Robotics Limited, this innovative construction robot is programmed to lay nearly 1,000 bricks in a single hour. What is more, it can operate around the clock at over four times the speed of human bricklayers.

The powerful truck-mounted robot is equipped with a 98-foot-long detachable arm that can single-handedly complete all the steps of brick-laying. Despite its massive size, Hadrian X is surprisingly agile, and can be easily brought to the construction site with the help of a truck. It is designed to shape, grind, mill as well as route the building blocks, following which it goes about the task of stacking them into a house. Speaking about the ingenious robot, Mark Pivac, founder of Fastbrick Robotics said:

People have been laying bricks for about 6,000 years and ever since the industrial revolution, they have tried to automate the bricklaying process. We’re at a technological nexus where a few different technologies have got to the level where it’s now possible to do it, and that’s what we’ve done.

Through all of its activities, however, the automaton remains stationary, with only its flexible arm moving around. To erect a building, several hundred bricks are loaded into the truck, which are then meticulously placed on a conveyor belt by the powerful robot. Following this, it smears a specific quantity of adhesive onto each block, using an advanced 3D CAD system and laser technology to guide the arm during the brick-laying process.

Thanks to the adhesive, the powerful robot can swiftly construct entire structures without the need for any mortar. The company has already created a prototype, which can be seen building a miniature home  inside a warehouse, in the following video.

To know more about Hadrian X, head over to the Fastbrick Robotics’s official website.

Via: Inhabitat