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Where are the robotic bricklayers?

constructionphysics.substack.com

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Re: Where are the robotic bricklayers?

#141

Post by 8note »

egh wrote: post #28

The great contempt that computer people have for the skills that every human brings to the jobs that the do is always on display here. We haven't automated driving; we haven't automated picking tomatoes; we haven't automated bricklaying; we can't automate cooking a fucking hamburger. But they are completely convinced that it's just around the corner, because they are full of contempt for the skill and intelligence of…

My dad automated cooking meatballs ages ago. I can't imagine a hamburger would be too much harder.

There's folks on YouTube already who can automate the assembly of a hamburger using Lego. It's just slower than having a person do it in a semi automated manner.

Per the article, we have automated some of bricklaying (for roads), and I've definitely had ads show up for tools that reduce the skills needed to do bricklaying.

We've also automated parts of driving - staying the same speed, parking, etc. The automation all changes which skills are important, and steadily makes high skilled jobs into less skilled jobs.

Re: Where are the robotic bricklayers?

#142

Post by ashtonkem »

egh wrote: post #28

The great contempt that computer people have for the skills that every human brings to the jobs that the do is always on display here. We haven't automated driving; we haven't automated picking tomatoes; we haven't automated bricklaying; we can't automate cooking a fucking hamburger. But they are completely convinced that it's just around the corner, because they are full of contempt for the skill and intelligence of…

It’s not contempt computer people have for manual labor; it’s the contempt that bosses have for paying wages.

Re: Where are the robotic bricklayers?

#143

Post by failuser »

waynesonfire wrote: post #27
dalbasal wrote: post #23

Great read. This kind of reminds me of auto manufacturing. It's almost unintuitive how difficult, expensive & error prone paneling is. Also painting. Stamping out panels, painting and installing them is a very hard job to do with robotics. Most of the space, treasure and expertise invested into an auto factory is panel related. The "possible, but perpetually difficult" space can be a deep valley for robotics, it seem…

lol.. and we're talking about AI replacing humans next year so come get your basic income check.

AI replacing humans as workers will not result in basic income. It will result either eradication of non-ruling classes or humanity itself.

Re: Where are the robotic bricklayers?

#144

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

Overton-Window wrote: post #111
Grakel wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Programming will be automated long before brick laying. We can barely print a document with confidence.

Programming is the conversion of ambiguous human requirements into machine readable instructions. To automate, computers would need to understand ambiguous human requirements. This is AGI. By comparison, brick laying is trivial.

A little bit of tongue in cheek:

As a tradesperson myself, working in a highly automated part of the metal fabrication process, I feel an urge to say something like:

The only thing standing between a programmer and unemployment is a sufficiently advanced compiler

But only because I great contempt for the hubris on display in these sorts of threads.

At the end of the day though, it's a-little-bit-form-column-A-and-a-little-bit-from-column-B.

We went from not-flying to landing robots on another planet in a handful of decades, who knows what a little bit more processing power and a few more layers of abstraction could bring.

Re: Where are the robotic bricklayers?

#145

Post by Meandering »

egh wrote: post #28

The great contempt that computer people have for the skills that every human brings to the jobs that the do is always on display here. We haven't automated driving; we haven't automated picking tomatoes; we haven't automated bricklaying; we can't automate cooking a fucking hamburger. But they are completely convinced that it's just around the corner, because they are full of contempt for the skill and intelligence of…

People also tend to ignore that automation minimizes craftsmanship and art to a MVP. I know a few masons and they are literally artists. Sure, you can lay bricks and have a wall but it's not the same as a mortar-less stone wall crafted with artistic skill. They are completely different objectives and render completely different impressions. Automation eliminates the humanity of a task by existence. We will lose those unspoken qualities when automation breaks into the mainstream and no one will know everything they have lost in the process.

Re: Where are the robotic bricklayers?

#146

Post by function_seven »

dragonsky67 wrote: post #130

The question I would have around automated building construction is "why use bricks?". Bricks are great for humans to build with, they are just the right size and weight for the human hand to manipulate and place. They are not optimised for machine manipulation. I would guess that if you wanted to automate construction you would start by making things like walls on an automated production line, then ship the largest…

Because they’re pleasant to look at. Half the time, the wall isn’t even “needed”, other than for aesthetic purposes.

Whenever a wall is purely functional, it’s almost never made of small clay bricks today. I’m talking about foundation walls, subsurface retaining walls, and similar things. The types of walls that aren’t meant to be looked at, but instead meant to hold something back or up.

Whenever you see a wall being made of red clay bricks, that’s because the builder wants it to look nice. I suppose you can cast a concrete wall and apply a façade of bricks. But there’s still a skill required for that final step.

Of course, you may have a different design aesthetic, wherein exposed concrete or large modular sections are both functional and pretty. But brick laying is all about looks.

CMUs are a different story, and kind of prove your point. They’re much larger and so reduce the piecework involved, but still small enough to allow for onsite flexibility in construction.

Re: Where are the robotic bricklayers?

#147

Post by dalbasal »

failuser wrote: post #143
waynesonfire wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

lol.. and we're talking about AI replacing humans next year so come get your basic income check.

AI replacing humans as workers will not result in basic income. It will result either eradication of non-ruling classes or humanity itself.

Maybe it'll be like that cow that wants to be eaten. Don't count your evil crow chicks before they've hatched.

Re: Where are the robotic bricklayers?

#148

Post by Plough_Jogger »

andrewmcwatters wrote: post #104
version_five wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to work in a family construction business and now I do machine learning contracting. When I compare the value you get for 300k worth of construction to what 300k of ML specialist time buys you, it's hard to agree with your comment. I understand the reasons, but generally I'm blown away by how cheap most labor intensive things are, compared to how much people will pay for software projects.

I don't agree with your comment. $50,000-$100,000 of well placed funds with the right software consultancy can generate a project that pulls in enough cash flow to pay for itself multiple times over in just the span of months . Machine learning is not a high return investment on its own. It is only leveraged as a technical piece of an already cash flow healthy larger pie in most organizations. The division of labor a…

FWIW, there are many opportunities for significant ROI in ML / analytics projects.

Low-hanging fruit I've seen in this area has included automating or augmenting labor-intensive manual processes (e.g., classifying insurance claims), replacing human judgement with time-series forecasts within an ordering system, and optimizing email campaigns with RL.

Re: Where are the robotic bricklayers?

#149

Post by nsonha »

egh wrote: post #28

The great contempt that computer people have for the skills that every human brings to the jobs that the do is always on display here. We haven't automated driving; we haven't automated picking tomatoes; we haven't automated bricklaying; we can't automate cooking a fucking hamburger. But they are completely convinced that it's just around the corner, because they are full of contempt for the skill and intelligence of…

> they are full of contempt for the skill and intelligence of ordinary people.

Where do you get that? While you focus on the "skill" and "intelligence", automation is about productivity and freedom (from labor)

> learn some humility and try to understand the skills

What do you think automation is, if not to try to understand the skills, then turn it into the program?

Re: Where are the robotic bricklayers?

#150

Post by drivingmenuts »

egh wrote: post #28

The great contempt that computer people have for the skills that every human brings to the jobs that the do is always on display here. We haven't automated driving; we haven't automated picking tomatoes; we haven't automated bricklaying; we can't automate cooking a fucking hamburger. But they are completely convinced that it's just around the corner, because they are full of contempt for the skill and intelligence of…

How much does a bricklaying system cost vs the cost of a human? Seems to me that humans are just way cheaper and lower maintenance.
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