Archinect - News

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...

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...

Has a cure for “concrete cancer” been found in Australia?

2019-11-04T00:01:00-05:00

Next year, if all goes well, a pair of footbridges intended to be cancer-proof will open in Geelong, a town 75km south-west of Melbourne, Australia. These bridges, which will act as prototypes for more than 150 others planned for the expanding city, will be constructed using a novel approach that combines glass-fibre and carbon-fibre rebars. They will, though, cost about the same as equivalent conventional bridges.

The potentially ground-breaking construction approach has been developed by Australian university Deakin and Austeng, an engineering firm. The structural system selectively deploys pricey carbon fiber rebar to strengthen the construction assembly where necessary, while glass fiber rebar members are used round out precast concrete frames that are then used as a base upon which the remainder of the bridge is assembled.

According to The Economist, a three-meter section of the bridge was recently tested and has passed inspection; The design team is moving forward with a 10-meter-long section to be installed in the field. The publication reports that the bridge’s carrying capacity has increased by 20-percent while its cross-section area has fallen by 15-percent.

To boot, the bridge’s concrete mixture is made from a low-carbon “geopolymer concrete” blend that includes fly-ash and other alternatives to carbon-intensive Portland cement.

TyBot: a robot invented for tying steel reinforcement bars in construction

2017-11-16T13:47:00-05:00

Tybot is a robot recently invented that can tie together steel reinforcement bars saving time and reducing risk in construction projects. Thousands of joints must be tied before pouring the concrete, however this step has traditionally been labor intensive, hazardous, and a cause for major delays in the building process.

This robot is the first offering from the firm Advanced Construction Robotics (ACR) launched by construction firm boss Steve Muck and robotics expert Jeremy Searock. The machine only requires transportation and setting up the frame using the existing infrastructure, which can be done in half a day's work. TyBot is then ready to go to work, often at night, needing only one worker supervising it in operation.

Click below and watch TyBot in action.