Robot moves bricks and builds a tennis court-sized wall in 4 hours

Recently, a bricklaying robot called Hadrian X has attracted everyone's attention again. It can build a wall the size of a tennis court in 4 hours. The robot looks like an ordinary truck, but once it arrives at the construction site, it can extend a 32-meter-long boom and accurately lay up to 300 large bricks per hour. The process looks very spectacular.

First introduced to the public back in 2015, this Australian robot was built on a traditional excavator, but it was still able to build the brick frame for a full-size home in about two days, about 20 times faster than a human bricklayer, according to Fastbrick Robotics (now known as FBR) and its creators.

The robot is expected to be commercialized in 2023. FBR has already built the first “next generation” Hadrian-X system and set a new speed record in its first outdoor test last month, demonstrating a continuous laying rate of more than 300 bricks per hour that meet US specifications.

If we consider that the largest brick it can handle at a time is 45 kg (99 lbs) and measures 600 x 400 x 300 mm (23.6 x 15.7 x 11.8 in), you can understand how efficient it is. It can move around 70 square meters of vertical wall per hour, equivalent to a quarter of a tennis court, and FBR actually hopes it will get even faster, as it is rated at a top speed of 500 bricks per hour.

Once Hadrian X arrives at the site, it is operated via a tablet and lays bricks precisely according to the CAD plan. Workers load the bricks into the back of the truck, and then the robot "unpacks" them, unpacking them and using a circular saw to cut them to size if necessary.

The bricks were delivered one by one to a small shuttle in the middle of the crane arm, coated with a special construction adhesive that replaced traditional mortar, and then placed into place, drying and setting within 45 minutes.