Video | Bricklaying robot completes two-storey building

An Australian bricklaying robot, the Hadrian X, has completed its first two-storey structure.

The structure was built on the premises of Perth-based
company FBR, which is developing the machine.

The building has been built in a style commonly found in
developing markets, including key FBR markets like Mexico, the Middle East, North
Africa, the Gulf Cooperation Council region, and Asia.

FBR’s 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 column
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.”