Hadrian the brickbot “can build a house in two days”

An Australian inventor has built a robot that he says is capable of building the brick shell of a house within two days.

We have absolutely nothing against bricklayers. The problem is the average age of bricklayers is going up and it’s difficult to attract young people to the trade– Mark Pivac, creator of Hadrian

Mark Pivac, an aeronautic and mechanical engineer, has called his robot bricklayer Hadrian after the second-century Roman emperor who had some building work done in northern Britannica.

Hadrian can lay 1,000 bricks an hour, working day and night, and could theoretically build as many as 150 homes a year.

The design of the property to be constructed is input into the robot, which uses it to decide where bricks need to be placed, before cutting and laying them.

Hadrian has a 28-foot arm that is used to set and mortar the brick.

Pivac told PerthNow: "People have been laying bricks for about 6,000 years and ever since the Industrial Revolution they’ve tried to automate the bricklaying process.

"We’re at a technological nexus where a few technologies have got to the level where it’s possible to do it, and that’s what we’ve done.

"We have absolutely nothing against bricklayers. The problem is the average age of bricklayers is going up and it’s difficult to attract young people to the trade."

Pivac said he came up with idea during a 2005 bricklayer shortage in Perth, Western Australia.

Around US$5m has already been spent on developing Hadrian, and Pivac is looking to commercialise his creation.

Last week, Australian investment company DMY Capital expressed an interest in buying Pivac’s company, Fastbrick Robotics.

Image: Hadrian the robot bricklayer