Archinect - News

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...

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...

Robot builds two-story brick house

2020-10-29T12:03:00-04:00

Perth, Australia-based robotics company FBR – formerly known as Fastbrick Robotics – has built its first two-storey house using its Hadrian X block-laying robot, which has been in development since 2015.

According to Global Construction Review, "it was the first time the robotic block-laying approach incorporated steel reinforced concrete columns and a concrete floor slab placed atop the structure’s first story."

Bricklaying robot gets to work delivering "wall as a service" construction

2019-10-22T14:05:00-04:00

The Australian company promoting the brick- and block-laying robot Hadrian X has entered a series of agreements with housebuilders in Australia and Mexico with a view to getting demonstration homes built. Fastbrick Australia, a joint venture between Hadrian X inventor Fastbrick Robotics (FBR Ltd) and Australian building supplies company Brickworks Building Products, hopes the agreements will get traction for its “Wall-as-a-Service” concept in the two countries’ sizeable home-building markets.

FBR's Hadrian X robots can build multi-room structures from 3D CAD models with no human intervention. In addition to new contracts with Australian and Mexican entities, the company has also inked deals with builders and fabricators in Saudi Arabia and Austria, among others.

A recent test using one of the Hadrian X robots, according to the FBR blog, built a three-bedroom, two-bathroom "full home structure" made up of 2,420 "Hadrian-optimised blocks" that generated only 5.5 blocks' worth of waste, or roughly 0.2% of the overall total.

Meet the bricklaying robot that can build a house in 3 days

2018-12-20T11:56:00-05:00

The 180-sqm, three bedroom, two bathroom structure was completed in under three days by Hadrian X, a new version of the robot.

Designed by an Australian company, Fast Brick Construction, the first version of Hadrian X was unveiled in 2015. Today the robot is capable of building and assessing a house from start to finish. Throughout its testing at the factory, it succeeded at completing a two-course structure, involving all combinations of brick cuts, sizes, and layering configurations; a larger two-room house from CAD model as well as an eleven-course pillar built from slab to cap height.

When supplied with a 3D model, the machine converts it into code that then uses proprietary software to calculate the location of every brick in the building. Once a concrete slab is laid, the laser-scanning technology surveys the foundation and then loads and arranges bricks using a 28m articulated telescopic boom. The components are held together by a special adhesive applied to each block through the robotic laying head. Hadrian X's laser alignment system provides an accuracy of within 0.5 mm.