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Bricklayers Think They’re Safe from Robots

nytimes.com

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Re: Bricklayers Think They’re Safe from Robots

#81

Post by cmrdporcupine »

olivermarks wrote: post #26

Bricks are expensive these days, and laying them is an artisan art and skill. Where I live in California houses are currently erected in days out of cheap wood and cladding. As soon as it is feasible this process will be automated and ways found to construct them more quickly using the cheapest materials. We recently had some terrible fires where entire subdivisions burnt. Dozens of houses burnt simultaneously yet th…

Surely the framing of a home is a very minor part of the total cost of construction at this point in time. My brother is a carpenter and formerly did mostly framing, and it wasn't a terribly high-paid job. He makes a lot more now doing concrete on commercial sites.

All of this is to say that I'm sure yes, I'm sure automation could reduce costs there, but likely the amount of money invested in R&D and then the machines itself wouldn't be worth it to these companies.

Re: Bricklayers Think They’re Safe from Robots

#82

Post by s73v3r_ »

jMyles wrote: post #56
ben509 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh come on, commuting comes with a substantial risk of injury. People doing work aren't victims, they are moral agents making informed decisions to pursue larger goals.

Of course - I love work. But I also don't think that it makes sense, in a world of automation, to continue to define people by their work. There is no risk of being "unsafe" just because our species has figured out a way to train robots to do what was once your job. That's really ill thinking; the future is much brighter than that.

"There is no risk of being "unsafe""

I would say the risk of being homeless because a robot means I can no longer afford my home means there's a risk of being "unsafe".

Re: Bricklayers Think They’re Safe from Robots

#83

Post by s73v3r_ »

jMyles wrote: post #59
notfromhere wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

because you need money to live and a job is the primary means of earning money.

I mean, I know that. I get it. My point is: if we can think so far outside the box as to imagine a world where the matter around us literally moves to achieve our will , can't we also imagine a world where this precept no longer holds?

Tell Congress that.

Re: Bricklayers Think They’re Safe from Robots

#84

Post by gormz »

Spooky23 wrote: post #7

Bricklayers are already a dying breed... workers compensation makes it way too difficult to build many structures out of brick. Most "brick" or "stone" you see in new construction is some prefab panel glued to something. IMO you'd employ more bricklayers doing trim work and operating the robot than you do now. And we should move away from shitty manufactured wood, glue and toxic treatments.

lots of concrete molds too. Become pretty popular to pour foundation walls in a brick or stone print.

Re: Bricklayers Think They’re Safe from Robots

#85

Post by istjohn »

peterwwillis wrote: post #34
michaelt wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have the wrong amount, consistency or distribution of mortar, the jig won't fix it. If you have the right amount, consistency and distribution of mortar, the jig won't do anything :)

So you build a jig to apply mortar. You scoop in an excess of mortar, pack it, press it, and what's left is just the right amount. Apply it into the space you want to lay the brick. Remove jig, maybe using a trowel to help if the mortar sticks a bit. Another jig holds the brick and fits it into place at the right position and placement with the right pressure.

Now you have two jigs to place, remove, and clean[1] for every brick you lay. And you'll need to adjust your jigs or have extra sets to lay half bricks, window sills, leads and corners. The greenest of apprentice bricklayers would be running circles around you with their trowel, level, and string.

1. It's not easy to keep a tool clean of mortar unless it's a simple flat blade like a trowel. Mortar will get in any crevice, dry, and then wet mortar sticks to it becoming that much harder to clean. An easy heuristic to judge the skill of a mason tender (assistant) is how clean their shovel is.

Re: Bricklayers Think They’re Safe from Robots

#86

Post by Jaruzel »

ytwySXpMbS wrote: post #54
corpMaverick wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does any one know why are bricks expensive ? It is just dirt. right ?

It's clay, and wood is much more abundant in the US. However, in other places such as the UK, wood isn't abundant, so most houses are made of brick.

Related, we're throwing up so many new houses these days, that the UK brick industry can't keep up with demand:

https://www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/news/view/uk-brick-ma...

Re: Bricklayers Think They’re Safe from Robots

#87

Post by usrusr »

Mithorium wrote: post #15
Y_Y wrote: post #2

Just makes me think there's a market for a better brickie robot. The one they show is lethargic and built like a train. Even two robotic arms, working like a human does would be tons more efficient. (I'd also like to complain about the stupid title, but it's what NYT picked)

I imagine something like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MKcTbYDP7w except for bricks

Imagine the smallest hexapod that could grab, carry and lay a single brick, then coordinate a huge swarm of them.

Or better yet: imagine the smallest walking/climbing platform that could carry a robotic arm just big enough to take a brick and pass it on, then coordinate many of them into semi-static bucket brigades for bricks and mortar that could form an ad-hoc power grid to solve the battery issue.

The main innovation tasks/requirements would be cheap volume production of the swarm elements and intelligent planner software to automatically derive a work plan straight from the CAD data (or else project setup/customization would be prohibitively expensive). The beauty would be scaling: need to build a bigger structure? Add swarm elements. Need to speed up the schedule? Add swarm elements.

Re: Bricklayers Think They’re Safe from Robots

#88

Post by oflannabhra »

I think they are right, at least for a long time.

I'm not a luddite, but every time I hear people talk about how everything from laying bricks to flipping burgers to landscaping will quickly become automated I have the following thought:

Humans are amazingly versatile, and amazingly cheap.

If I'm making, say, peanut butter, automation makes sense. I'll put up millions of dollars to leverage large-scale automation technologies (mixers, conveyors, etc) because of volume and consistency.

The smaller the scale, the better advantage humans have, and will for a long time.

Even if a burger-flipping robot existed today, it wouldn't have a great ROI compared to the ongoing cost of labor. A restaurant just doesn't make enough burgers for automation to be cost-effective yet. That is why most automation has occurred at centralized points of supply chains, and why a patty that enters a McDonalds is already the product of automation.

Someday, small scale automation technologies will have reached a low enough price point, and an effective versatility that we won't need humans to lay bricks or flip burgers. My bet is that occurs when the components (including software) of such a robot become commoditized and modularized far beyond what they are today.

Re: Bricklayers Think They’re Safe from Robots

#89

Post by olivermarks »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #81
olivermarks wrote: post #26

Bricks are expensive these days, and laying them is an artisan art and skill. Where I live in California houses are currently erected in days out of cheap wood and cladding. As soon as it is feasible this process will be automated and ways found to construct them more quickly using the cheapest materials. We recently had some terrible fires where entire subdivisions burnt. Dozens of houses burnt simultaneously yet th…

Surely the framing of a home is a very minor part of the total cost of construction at this point in time. My brother is a carpenter and formerly did mostly framing, and it wasn't a terribly high-paid job. He makes a lot more now doing concrete on commercial sites. All of this is to say that I'm sure yes, I'm sure automation could reduce costs there, but likely the amount of money invested in R&D and then the machine…

I live in an old (1896) house constructed with douglas fir and redwood that is thousands of years old and incredibly dense - it's hard to pound a nail into it. Today's houses are framed with wood that is very 'green', soft and flammable and cladding that is little more than thick cardboard with weathershield on one side.

It seems likely the next generations of materials will be even more ephemeral and designed for speed of construction...concrete seems to be the only material resistant to this, although older concrete is a lot more dense than the mixes we buy today....

Re: Bricklayers Think They’re Safe from Robots

#90

Post by peterwwillis »

istjohn wrote: post #85
peterwwillis wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you build a jig to apply mortar. You scoop in an excess of mortar, pack it, press it, and what's left is just the right amount. Apply it into the space you want to lay the brick. Remove jig, maybe using a trowel to help if the mortar sticks a bit. Another jig holds the brick and fits it into place at the right position and placement with the right pressure.

Now you have two jigs to place, remove, and clean[1] for every brick you lay. And you'll need to adjust your jigs or have extra sets to lay half bricks, window sills, leads and corners. The greenest of apprentice bricklayers would be running circles around you with their trowel, level, and string. 1. It's not easy to keep a tool clean of mortar unless it's a simple flat blade like a trowel. Mortar will get in any cre…

I think you're right, but there's still potential for iterating over the jigs until they are more efficient. The robot in the video of the article seems to me like the same sort of large crude machine that predated the compact sewing machine. It took quite a long time for them to improve on it, but it worked, and now very few industries sew by hand.
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