Archinect - News

ETH Zurich’s 3D printed sculpture oscillates between ‘opaque boundary’ and ‘transparent curtain’

2024-03-14T12:06:00-04:00

ETH Zurich has unveiled a 6.5-foot-tall lightweight shell fabricated from 3D printing.

Named 'Fluid Forms,' and created by the institution’s Digital Building Technologies group, the structure seeks to showcase “an innovative robotic additive manufacturing method that enables the printing of doubly curved thin shells more efficiently.”

Video courtesy Ιoanna.M/YouTube

The design of Fluid Forms was inspired by the Costa minimal surface, which belongs to a family of shapes that minimize area for a given boundary, resulting in a geometry with strong structural properties. In contrast to horizontal plane printing, the fabrication process sees the print paths align to principal curvature directions, which, according to the team, reduces the need for external support and enhances the precision and surface quality of the curved surface.

Image credit: Dominik Vogel

“The print path orientation is controlled through a vector-field optimization method that has been fi...

AI designer and multi-story 3D printer among ICON technologies unveiled at SXSW

2024-03-12T16:00:00-04:00

Construction technologies company ICON has unveiled a suite of new technologies at SXSW, including a multi-story robotic construction system and an AI-powered design system.

At a SXSW event dubbed ‘Domus Ex Machina,’ the company also presented a new low-carbon building material for 3D printing alongside a digital catalog for residential 3D printed architecture containing more than 60 designs.

Phoenix multi-story printer. Image credit: ICON

“In the future, I believe nearly all construction will be done by robots, and nearly all construction-related information will be processed and managed by AI systems,” said Jason Ballard, ICON Co-Founder and CEO, announcing the new systems. “It is clear to me that this is the way to cut the cost and time of construction in half while making homes that are twice as good and more faithfully express the values and hopes of the people who live in them.”

Phoenix multi-story printer. Image credit: ICON

Among the new technologies unveiled is Phoenix, ICON...

Drexel University researchers develop AI-guided robotic structural inspection system

2024-02-12T08:00:00-05:00

Researchers based at the Drexel University College of Engineering have devised a new method for performing structural safety inspections using autonomous robots aided by machine learning technology.

The article they published recently in the Elsevier journal Automation in Construction presented the potential for a new multi-scale monitoring system informed by deep-learning algorithms that work to find cracks and other damage to buildings before using LiDAR to produce three-dimensional images for inspectors to aid in their documentation.

The development could potentially work to benefit the enormous task of maintaining the health of structures that are increasingly being reused or restored in cities large and small across the country. Despite the relative age of America’s built environment, roughly two-thirds of today’s existing buildings will be in use in the year 2050, according to Gensler’s predictions.

NASA tests autonomous construction robots for future use in outer space

2024-02-06T11:09:00-05:00

NASA has unveiled details of a robotic system designed to construct and maintain structural components in space. The system, developed by NASA’s Automated Reconfigurable Mission Adaptive Digital Assembly Systems (ARMADAS) team, consists of inchworm-like robots that may one day assemble, repair, and reconfigure structural materials in orbit, on the lunar surface, or on other planets, before humans arrive.

A Scaling Omnidirectional Lattice Locomoting Explorer (SOLL-E) builder robot carries a small building block called a voxel – short for volumetric pixel – as it maneuvers, stepping inchworm-style, along the exterior of a mechanical metamaterial structure. Image credit: NASA/Dominic Hart

NASA’s system revolves around a set of 3D building blocks called voxels, which resemble a wire-frame soccer ball. Made of strong, lightweight composite materials, the voxels combine to create a system that, according to NASA, is comparable to current high-performance structures such as bridges, aircraf...

University of British Columbia develops ‘smart construction robots’ for basic on-site tasks

2023-12-01T12:00:00-05:00

A team at the University of British Columbia has developed “smart construction robots” for performing basic tasks on construction sites, such as lifting and moving objects. The team, led by Dr. Tony Yang from the University’s Smart Structures Lab, recently demonstrated the concept at a construction site in Richmond, British Columbia.

Photo credit: UBC Applied Science

The team’s process sees aerial drones fitted with cameras capture details that are used to create a digital twin of the construction site. AI-equipped cranes and forklifts use the information to move construction materials, such as beams and columns, around the site without a human operator.

Lead researcher Dr. Tony Yang observes as the robot decides how to navigate around the obstacle and complete its task, without n eeding a human operator. Photo credit: UBC Applied Science

“Our smart construction robots are able to recognize objects, performing detailed scans of structural components for quality assurance,” Dr. Yang ex...

University of Illinois launches center for autonomous construction research

2023-08-23T11:26:00-04:00

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Grainger College of Engineering has announced the creation of a research and development center dedicated to autonomous construction technologies. The initiative, funded by the US Army Corps of Engineers, will engage with research on self-driving construction vehicles and their integration into modern construction practices.

The Center for Autonomous Construction in Manufacturing at Scale (CACMS) will delve into prominent challenges in autonomous construction, including control systems, artificial intelligence applications, system architecture, and advanced manufacturing methods such as additive manufacturing. Vehicles ranging from traditional wheeled vehicles to tracked units will also undergo testing and development at the center, which will also hold a fleet of self-driving cars.

Within these fields, CACMS's primary mission ...

Meet New York City's window-washing robot

2023-08-18T13:47:00-04:00

Skyline Robotics is disrupting the century-old practice of window washing with new technology that the startup hopes will redefine a risky industry. Its window-washing robot, Ozmo, is now operational in Tel Aviv and New York, and has worked on major Manhattan buildings such as 10 Hudson Yards, 383 Madison, 825 3rd Avenue and 7 World Trade Center [...]

Automation has entered the building maintenance field with AI-powered window-washing robots appearing on Manhattan's high-rise facades.

The technology could signal a shift in the workforce traditionally assigned to this task, from human teams to lone robots controlled remotely, potentially from anywhere in the world.

Robots assemble a domed timber pavilion designed by the universities of Stuttgart and Freiburg

2023-08-15T11:16:00-04:00

The University of Stuttgart and the University of Freiburg have partnered on the construction of a domed timber pavilion on the University of Freiburg campus which seeks to showcase an “integrative approach to design and construction for sustainable architecture.” The livMatS Biomimetic Shell at the FIT Freiburg Center for Interactive Materials and Bioinspired Technologies will serve as a research space for the development of innovative, cross-disciplinary research ideas.

Image credit: Conné van d'Grachten

The design of the building envelope is based on the morphological principles of the plate skeleton of sea urchins, which have been researched at the University of Stuttgart for over a decade. For the pavilion, the segmental shell construction was further developed as a highly insulating structure for year-round and permanent use, with the combination of two partial shells of different shapes and sizes creating an opening skylight.

Image credit: Con...

3XN tops out a modular timber office park for two robotics companies

2023-05-05T14:57:00-04:00

3XN is celebrating the topping out of Cobot Hub, a timber office park that will serve as the new joining home of robotics companies Universal Robots (UR) and Mobile Industrial Robots A/S (MiR) in Odense, Denmark.

Photo by Rasmus Hjortshøj

The approximately 215,000-square-foot campus was designed to enhance collaboration and employee well-being while offering specialized environments that foster robotics research and development. It features open office layouts, along with common areas and amenity spaces where employees can interact informally. Increased visibility and transparency throughout the spaces that encourage social interaction were prioritized.

Photo by Rasmus Hjortshøj

Cobot Hub is composed of flexible, cubic modules that are tailored to the needs of the two companies. This approach allows the building to be scaled up or down according to future needs as certain parts of the structure and materials can be reshaped and reused. It is also primarily made of wood, allowing the...

Boston Dynamics’ robot dog Spot equipped with ChatGPT to allow conversations with human companions

2023-05-04T11:39:00-04:00

Florida-based AI solutions company Levatas has equipped Boston Dynamics’ famous robot dog Spot with ChatGPT and Google’s Text-to-Speech model, allowing the robot to answer questions about past and future missions. Humans can talk to the adapted Spot model using normal language commands, with Spot able to instantly parse high volumes of information and use insights from the data to answer questions.

“These robots run automated missions every day,” tweeted machine learning engineer Santiago Valdarrama, who worked on the project. “Each mission uses miles-long, hard-to-understand configuration files. Only technical people can handle them. At the end of each mission, the robots capture a ton of data. There's no simple way to query all of it on demand. That's where ChatGPT comes in. We show it the configuration files and the mission results. We then ask questions using that context. Put that together with a voice-enabled interface, and we have an awesome way to query our data!”

We integr...

Role of artificial intelligence on construction sites expected to surge in coming decade

2023-04-06T11:12:00-04:00

A new report predicts that the global market for artificial intelligence in construction will experience significant growth in the next decade. The analysis by Research Dive reports that the market will grow by 34.1% by 2031 fuelled by AI-driven solutions and services, both on-site and remote.

According to the report, the implementation of artificial intelligence in the construction sector will be driven by a desire to improve worker safety on building sites and lessen health risks in the construction industry. The report cites data from OSHA that since 2020, “one in five worker deaths per year were recorded from the construction sector.” Research Dive, therefore, expects that the safety infrastructure on construction sites, such as cameras, sensors, and IoT devices detecting construction activity, will serve as foundations for increased integration of AI.

Advances in AI on the con...

Florida International University to develop virtual reality games for training future AEC workers thanks to NSF grant

2023-03-27T12:06:00-04:00

Florida International University (FIU) has been awarded a grant to develop games that can train individuals for roles in architecture, engineering, and construction. The funding, awarded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), will support FIU’s exploration into how institutions can train skilled workers at a time when robotics and autonomous systems are increasingly being deployed in the AEC sector.

As part of the project, faculty from the institution’s School of Architecture and School of Computing and Information Services will work together to develop a platform that will use virtual reality games to train workers through a personalized learning program. The learning tool is expected to focus on operational industrial robots, with learning delivery tailored for "differences in ability, experience, and sociocultural backgrounds."

The tool will see users asked to explain their decisions ...

Autonomous construction robot IronBOT launched to reduce rebar installation times

2023-03-23T13:13:00-04:00

Pennsylvania-based Advanced Construction Robotics (ACR) has unveiled its latest robot designed to handle rebar on construction sites. Named IronBOT, the system can lift, carry, and place up to 5,000-lb bundles of horizontal and longitudinal rebar.

According to ACR, the robotic system requires no pre-programming, pre-mapping, calibration, or BIM input, and instead automates rebar placement based on the user’s spacing requirements. The company also claims the system can be mobilized on a construction site within 4 to 8 hours and can operate day or night.

IronBOT’s release comes six years after Advanced Construction Robotics released TyBOT, an autonomous system that can tie together steel reinforcement bars. According to the company, a construction site that uses both IronBOT and TyBOT can reduce rebar installation times by 50%.

“We are confident the combination of TyBOT and IronBOT generates a disruptive technology, meaning the time and cost savings are so significant on a job that i...

Robotics company unveils world’s first autonomous system for installing solar farm foundations

2023-03-17T08:30:00-04:00

San Francisco-based Built Robotics has announced the development of the “world’s first fully autonomous solar piling system.” The system, named RPD 35, is capable of constructing foundations for solar panel arrays up to five times faster than the traditional method.

The system was designed for integration into utility-scale solar projects, which require the support of steel H-beams measuring 12-16 feet in length. A typical solar farm requires tens of thousands of piles to be installed, each of which is driven approximately eight feet into the ground and positioned at an accuracy of less than an inch.

According to its creators, RPD 35 uses AI to conduct all steps in the piling process, including surveying, pile distribution, pile driving, and inspection. As a result, the system can enable a two-person crew to install over 300 piles per day.

"Solar piling is a tough, repetitive job, one well suited to automation," explained the company’s CEO and founder Noah Ready-Campbell. "Our pili...

Boston Dynamics’ humanoid robot Atlas lends a hand on the construction site

2023-01-19T11:49:00-05:00

Boston Dynamics has released a new video showcasing the capabilities of their humanoid robot Atlas. The one-minute-long YouTube video is set within a mock-up construction site, with Atlas seen assisting a human construction worker on scaffolding.

Playfully titled ‘Atlas Gets a Grip,’ the video shows Atlas moving a timber plank around the mock-up site before picking up a tool bag to toss up to a construction worker on an elevated single-story scaffolding platform. As with past Boston Dynamic videos, Atlas ends the sequence in style by performing a backflip off a wooden crate.

Video via Boston Dynamics on YouTube

Entertainment value aside, the video offers an insight into the evolving capabilities of Boston Dynamics’ humanoid robot and its ability to manipulate the world around it. By interacting with objects and modifying its surroundings in pursuit of a defined goal, the company seeks to demonstrate the evolving ability of robots to assist in heavy-duty human tasks, including compl...

Construction robotics market could triple by 2030, reaching $164 million

2022-08-25T12:01:00-04:00

New research suggests that the global market for construction robotics will triple by 2030. The figures, generated by Straits Research, predict that the construction robotics market will grow from its current $50 million value to reach $164 million by the end of the decade, increasing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14%.

“Primary factors promoting the shift towards adopting robots in the construction industry are enhanced productivity, quality, worker safety, and global urbanization,” the research says, noting that robotics could eliminate or mitigate the risks of human error, operate in hazardous environments, and improve precession and efficiency during the construction process. Straits also identifies the “demolition robot market” as a submarket expected to experience growth.

Herzog & de Meuron's new Royal College of Art Battersea Campus opens to the public

2022-05-23T17:49:00-04:00

Big news today as Herzog & de Meuron’s anticipated expansion of the Royal College of Art has officially opened in the Battersea district of London.

Characterized by a fusion of seven separate facilities into one combined structure, the new £135 million ($169 million) complex entails the creation of new social and educational spaces for the Sculpture, Contemporary Art Practice, and Moving Image departments as well as for the RCA’s School of Design.

Photo: Iwan Baan, image courtesy Royal College of Art

The 15,500-square-meter (167,000-square-foot) campus also sought to aid the shift in the 185-year-old institution's postgraduate offerings towards a more strengthened set of STEAM programs, which is seen in the addition of a new tech-centric eight-story research center, robotics hangar, and a center for enterprise, entrepreneurship, incubation and business support called InnovationRCA.

Photo: Iwan Baan, image courtesy Royal College of Art

Writing in the Guardian today, critic Oliver Wain...

China is building a massive new hydroelectric dam with AI-controlled robots and 3D printing technology

2022-05-11T15:37:00-04:00

China is using artificial intelligence to effectively turn a dam project on the Tibetan Plateau into the world’s largest 3D printer, according to scientists involved in the project. The 180 metre (590 feet) high Yangqu hydropower plant will be built slice by slice – using unmanned excavators, trucks, bulldozers, pavers and rollers, all controlled by AI – in the same additive manufacturing process used in 3D printing.

The Yangqu dam project is set to finish in two years and is being overseen by Tsinghua University’s Liu Tianyun, who recently argued that developments in 3D printing have made the technology “identical to nature.”

Its purported future annual output of nearly 5 billion kilowatt hours of electricity for Henan Province is a full billion more than that of the Hoover Dam, whose WPA-era construction was similarly the product of two decades worth of advancements in engineering and construction technologies.

Robotics company behind machine that automates construction layouts secures $9.4 million in Series A funding

2022-04-26T16:12:00-04:00

Rugged Robotics, a Houston-based developer of construction technology, raised $9.4 million in Series A funding. Similar to Dusty Robotics, Rugged offers a robot to automate construction layout. Rugged’s Mark I marks architectural and engineering designs directly onto concrete floors so workers know where to build. The robot is available for commercial use, which the company delivers via layout as a service (a derivative of Robots as a Service).

The funding round was led by BOLD Capital Partners and Brick & Mortar Ventures, along with Riot Ventures, Morpheus, Embark, Consigli Construction Company, and Suffolk Technologies. This latest capitalization round brings the company’s full funding to around $12 million. Rugged Robotics plans to use the investment to accelerate the robot’s deployment, expand its product offering, and make additional hires.

Rugged Robotics was founded in 2018 by Derrick Morse and Logan Farrell, a NASA engineer. In 2019, the company raised $2.5 million by way of a seed funding round.

The 10 most promising construction startups of 2021, from AI contract reviewers to cloud-based material management

2021-11-24T14:02:00-05:00

The ten winners of the Construction Startup Competition 2021 have been announced by CEMEX Ventures, recognizing the most promising startup companies in the construction sector for this year. The overall winner of the competition was Document Crunch, an AI-powered software which can identify and explain critical issues in construction contracts.

Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Document Crunch allows users to upload documents online to be reviewed by an AI software to analyze risk, understand waivers, and highlight indemnity and insurance obligations. As well as reviewing construction contracts and insurance policies, the software can also analyze plans, drawings, and specifications, categorizing elements such as design responsibility, confidentiality requirements, hazardous materials, and warranty obligations.

Document Crunch was one of ten winning projects in the competi...

ETH Zurich unveils robotically-assembled sculpture inspired by the Hanging Gardens of Babylon

2021-11-23T16:59:00-05:00

Researchers at ETH Zurich in Switzerland have offered an insight into the design and fabrication of a new architectural sculpture, built with the help of artificial intelligence and four robots. The structure, standing 22.5 meters (74 feet) in height, will consist of five geometrically-complex wooden pods all slightly offset from each other and supported by eight thin steel pillars.

Image: Gramazio Kohler Research, ETH Zürich

Titled "Semiramis" after the Babylonian queen associated in folklore with the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the sculpture is currently being manufactured at ETH Zurich’s Robotic Fabrication Laboratory. In what the team describes as a “delicate dance for the highest precision,” the wooden pods are being assembled by four suspended robotic arms, each collecting wooden panels and placing them in accordance with a computer-generated design.

Image: Pascal Bach / Gramazio Kohler Research, ETH Zurich

Once the robotic arms have placed four panels next to each other, cra...

MIT-designed self-driving Roboats make a splash in Amsterdam’s canals

2021-11-18T13:33:00-05:00

After six years of design and research at MIT, a pair of autonomous boats have been launched into the canals of Amsterdam. Roboat, a research project undertaken by the MIT Senseable City Lab and the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS Institute), seeks to encourage a future where autonomous boats could help the city of Amsterdam move part of its road traffic to the water.

Image © MIT / AMS Institute

From November onwards, the two full-scale prototypes will be used for three use cases: passenger transport, logistics (waste collection), and data collection (surveying water infrastructure and monitoring water quality). The boats will operate with complete autonomy through the use of way-point finding, autonomous docking and undocking, and collision avoidance.

“Picture being amid the hustle and bustle on the Amsterdam canals,” explains Ynse Deinema, Roboat Project Lead at AMS Institute. “This urban context involves tight space maneu...

FBR's Hadrian X block-laying robot to construct up to 5,000 homes in Mexico

2021-11-03T17:20:00-04:00

FBR, the Perth, Australia-based robotics company behind the Hadrian X block-laying robot, has announced that it has signed a term sheet with GP Vivienda, the housing division of one of Mexico’s largest construction and real estate development companies, to supply its “Wall as a Service” (WaaS) for between 2,000 and 5,000 homes in Mexico.

As per FBR’s statement, the company will also supply all associated retaining walls and other brick and block structures on one or more greenfield residential development sites in Mexico following the completion of various required milestones. The milestones include receiving confirmation that FBR’s Hadrian X and Fastbrick Wall System are compliant with all relevant codes and regulations in Mexico, the completion of a collaborative commercial model, the completion of a pilot building program of 20 homes in Mexico with the Hadrian X, and the easing of Covid-19 travel restrictions.

FBR’s WaaS will supply the blocks and construct walls onsite to the s...

Inside a new robotic housing factory in British Columbia, Canada

2021-10-20T11:50:00-04:00

Intelligent City, a Canadian company focused on innovation in housing, has offered a glimpse inside their new factory in Delta, British Columbia. The facility, which has now begun building mid-to-high-rise urban housing projects for Canada and the United States, will use advanced robotics to automatically assemble mass timber building systems.

Intelligent City's new factory in British Columbia. Image courtesy: Intelligent City

The company was founded in 2008 by German-Canadian architect Oliver Lang and Canadian designer Cindy Wilson, who also comes from an architectural background with a Bachelor of Architecture and Bachelor of Arts from the University of British Columbia. The team is currently working to deliver 2,880 homes in Canada and 1,400 homes in the United States, with delivery of their first projects expected in early 2022 in Vancouver.

Intelligent City's new factory in British Columbia. Image courtesy: Intelligent City

The company’s approach is centered on the use of mass...

Australian robotics company signs multi-home contract to construct residences using its Hadrian X block-laying technology

2021-10-07T16:12:00-04:00

Perth, Australia-based robotics company FBR, the entity behind the Hadrian X block-laying robot, has signed another multi-home contract to supply its “Wall as a Service”.

Previously on Archinect: Bricklaying robot gets to work delivering "wall as a service" construction

The contract entails the construction of slab, footings, structural walls, second-story slabs, and roof trusses for eight two-story townhouses in St. James, Western Australia. According to FBR, work on the $5 million project will start as soon as practicable after all necessary approvals have been granted, and will be completed at commercial rates.

"We are pleased to be adding this large project to our pipeline of work, having spent the past 12 months introducing the Hadrian X® into the real-world building environment to validate our game-changing technology with some prominent Western Australian builders,” says FBR Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Mike Pivac. “Now that we have demonstrated all the bene...

SOM unveils graphene-enhanced space habitat in collaboration with the University of Manchester

2021-10-07T08:30:00-04:00

SOM has entered the interplanetary market as plans for a new space habitat prototype have been unveiled thanks to a collaboration with a team from the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre at the University of Manchester.

Anticipating a future demand for infrastructure in space, SOM aims to develop a 2D scalable model with the potential to be made commercially available in the next five to ten years using robotics that can manufacturer complex shapes using an array of advanced materials like graphene.

Image courtesy SOM

“As architects, our role is to combine and integrate the most innovative technologies, materials, methods and above all the human experience to designing inhabited environments,” SOM senior designer Daniel Inocente said in a statement. “Conducting research using graphene allows us to test lightweight materials and design processes that could improve the efficacy of composite structures for potential applications on Earth and future use in space.”

Manchester has been...

Chicago Architecture Biennial: A new pavilion by SOM & Taubman College makes a statement about SLT technology

2021-09-21T19:26:00-04:00

As part of their contribution to the 2021 Chicago Architecture Biennial, Skidmore Owings & Merrill has teamed up with the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning on the design of a robotically fabricated timber pavilion.

The project is the result of a year’s worth of research by Taubman Professors Tsz Yan Ng and Wes McGee and is meant as a showcase for the power of robotics to produce efficient and sustainable methods of design and construction.

“Automated manufacturing technologies enable us to precisely and efficiently prefabricate a kit of parts which can be delivered to the construction site on demand, leveraging skilled labor where it is most effective in the process,” Ng and McGee said in a statement.

The processors report that the Spatial Laminated Timber (SLT) they used reduces up to 46% of material use when compared to more trad...

Electriflow taps advancements in soft robotics to create mechanisms that operate without traditional machine parts

2021-07-27T17:38:00-04:00

A team of designers and engineers at the University of Colorado Boulder’s ATLAS Institute have tapped into new advancements in the field of soft robotics to develop paper-thin, moveable mechanisms. The objects, dubbed “Electriflow”, which don’t require motors or other traditional machinery parts to function, have been presented at the Association for Computing Machinery’s 2021 Designing Interactive Systems (DIS) conference.

The researchers’ early creations include origami cranes that can bend their necks, moving flower petals, and fluttering insects.

“Usually, books about butterflies are static,” said CU Boulder graduate student and team lead, Purnendu. “But could you have a butterfly flap its wings within a book? We’ve shown that it’s possible.”

Electriflow took inspiration from previously developed “artificial muscles” by Christopher Keplinger at CU Boulder. His work is now available commercially through a company called Artimus Robotics. Keplinger employed a technology called h...

The livMatS Pavilion at the University of Freiburg displays the strength of a more sustainable material

2021-07-20T08:00:00-04:00

A new “bioinspired” pavilion is opening in Germany thanks to some help from robotic hands.

The livMatS Pavilion has been successfully installed in the botanical garden on the campus of the University of Freiburg thanks to a cross-university team of engineers, architects, and biologists. The building is the first of its kind using a load-bearing structure that is entirely made of robotically-wound flax fiber.

Images courtesy ICD/ITKE/intCDC and the University of Stuttgart

Participants from both the University of Freiburg and the University of Stuttgart combined on the demonstration piece that showcases the material’s ductile capabilities in a spindly geometric form that simultaneously evokes both latticework and natural structures like cactus tissue and spiderwebs.

Images courtesy ICD/ITKE/intCDC and the University of Stuttgart

The pavilion’s prefabricated flax fiber truss was wrapped in a waterproof skin and wound together using a robotic process designed by the University of Stuttg...

Automated rebar prefabrication startup raises $8 million in Series A funding

2021-07-01T18:38:00-04:00

A New York-based construction robotics startup that makes prefabricated rebar cages for concrete structures has announced that it has secured $8 million in a Series A funding round.

The round was led by Tribeca Venture Partners and featured Blackhorn Ventures, Point72 Ventures, New York State, and Twenty Seven Ventures. This follows a $3 million seed round raised in late 2019.

The company, Toggle, was founded in 2016 by Daniel Blank and Ian Cohen. Toggle automates the rebar assembly process, combining its software with industrial robots and heavy material handling equipment. This allows the company to produce building materials in a safer, more productive, and more precise manner, thus able to deliver them at a lower cost and faster speed.

"At a time when global construction is accelerating at an unprecedented pace, Toggle offers a way to add capacity while saving time and cost on some of the largest types of projects," said Toggle CEO, Daniel Blank. "We are especially grateful f...