Video | Bricklaying robot completes two-storey building

An Australian bricklaying robot, the Hadrian X, has completed its first two-storey structure.

The structure was built on the premises of Perth-based company FBR, which is developing the machine.

The building has been built in a style commonly found in developing markets, including key FBR markets like Mexico, the Middle East, North Africa, the Gulf Cooperation Council region, and Asia.

FBR’s chief executive Mike Pivac said this was the first time FBR had demonstrated the Hadrian X’s ability to build two storey structures, as well as working with design elements like steel-reinforced concrete column and suspended concrete slabs.

During the construction, starter bars were inserted into the concrete slab, with couplers used to install rebar through the aligned cores of the blocks and concrete manually poured into the cores. Steel cages were inserted into the block columns built by the Hadrian X, with a concrete pump used to fill the columns.

FBR crane-lifted a precast concrete slab onto the structure the day after the first storey was completed, with the Hadrian X commencing building of the second storey immediately after the crane left FBR’s premises.

FBR said that in large greenfield developments, Hadrian X would continue building the first levels of the adjacent buildings in the development while the second storey slabs were formed and poured, before returning to build the second storey of each structure once the slabs had cured.

Pivac said: “The completion of our first two storey build is a significant step in the commercialisation of our robotic construction technology.”