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Where are the robotic bricklayers?

constructionphysics.substack.com

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Re: Where are the robotic bricklayers?

#171

Post by nitwit005 »

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…

> computer people

The article suggests efforts go back over 100 years, so it seems bizarre to suggest this has something to do with "computer people".

There is a commercial burger cooking machine north of me in SF (https://www.creator.rest/), and there are similar machines for pizzas and other fast food. That isn't an unsolved problem.

Re: Where are the robotic bricklayers?

#172

Post by coderjames »

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…

Automated hamburgers at https://theroboburger.com/ and https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/16/business/white-castle-flippy-... and https://sf.eater.com/2018/6/21/17489084/creator-robot-burger...

Automated cement-pouring in place of brick laying at https://www.nbc12.com/2021/06/24/virginias-first-3-d-printed...

The robots have arrived. Unskilled labour needs to be concerned.

Re: Where are the robotic bricklayers?

#174

Post by polishdude20 »

Grakel wrote: post #151
Overton-Window wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Mix mortar to the consistency of mashed potatoes and apply gently but thoroughly to two faces of a heavy, but brittle object, then place that brick into a corner with both faces with applied mortar of even thickness touching receiving faces at the same time, no lateral sliding. Press the brick gently into the corner and tap, making sure that it lines up perfectly vertically with a string line and horizontally with th…

You can mention these same difficulty of tasks for soda can manufacture or a dozen other how its made videos. And yet, a lot of those processes that are just as complicated as brick laying, have been automated by robots.

Re: Where are the robotic bricklayers?

#175

Post by onlyrealcuzzo »

colordrops wrote: post #62
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…

Having respect for the skills of a worker and also believing that they are possible to automate are not mutually exclusive. It's no different from people saying the same thing about chess and chess players, or go and go players, before the problem was solved. And it's not just blue collar workers that are a target of this idea. We are already starting to see automated programming moving out of the research lab and in…

Code has been getting automated since basically day one of programming.

The funny thing about automation in programming - it has always opened up more doors - and led to more employment in programming.

We are so far from anything that resembles real automated coding - that coding automation should continue to be celebrated by engineers for a long time.

GitHub Co-Pilot and VS Code aren't going to replace you - they're just going to let your company offer a better product, release a new version sooner, test different versions, etc.

Re: Where are the robotic bricklayers?

#176

Post by Grakel »

XorNot wrote: post #167
Grakel wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mix mortar to the consistency of mashed potatoes and apply gently but thoroughly to two faces of a heavy, but brittle object, then place that brick into a corner with both faces with applied mortar of even thickness touching receiving faces at the same time, no lateral sliding. Press the brick gently into the corner and tap, making sure that it lines up perfectly vertically with a string line and horizontally with th…

https://www.fbr.com.au/view/hadrian-x Brick laying robots already exist. This isn't a problem that can't be solved, it's a question of making it economically viable. But the future is pretty obviously going to be skilled machinery operators overseeing the automation. Even more interesting its once you automate like this the constraints start changing: i.e. it's easier to have a robot lay bricks with epoxy then cement…

Yes, that system is discussed in the article, and it looks like it doesn't work very well. I doubt it can keep up with human labor.

I agree. It will happen eventually, but the bigger point here that is more related to to discussions on HN is that despite a lot of enthusiasm, machine learning and AI are still in the amino acid phase of evolution, and everything still sucks.

Re: Where are the robotic bricklayers?

#177

Post by anigbrowl »

polishdude20 wrote: post #174
Grakel wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mix mortar to the consistency of mashed potatoes and apply gently but thoroughly to two faces of a heavy, but brittle object, then place that brick into a corner with both faces with applied mortar of even thickness touching receiving faces at the same time, no lateral sliding. Press the brick gently into the corner and tap, making sure that it lines up perfectly vertically with a string line and horizontally with th…

You can mention these same difficulty of tasks for soda can manufacture or a dozen other how its made videos. And yet, a lot of those processes that are just as complicated as brick laying, have been automated by robots.

Key difference: you deploy a soda can robot in a factory. You have an enclosed environment with all of your inputs nicely set up.

For robot bricklaying, you can depend on the electrical supply. Everything else is a toss-up. I do think it's possible, but you don't choose your working environment or the weather conditions so everything is gonna be a lot more hassle.

Re: Where are the robotic bricklayers?

#178

Post by lumost »

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…

Alternately, The problem may be that human labor is "cheap" for the activities which still require brick laying and in cases where it's "expensive" alternate materials can be used.

In order to make automation economically viable there would need to be a niche for "cheap" brick powered by automation. It's unclear to me that this niche exists and can't be similarly achieved by scaling up the blocks or switching to more labor efficient building materials.

Re: Where are the robotic bricklayers?

#179

Post by dylan604 »

colordrops wrote: post #62
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…

Having respect for the skills of a worker and also believing that they are possible to automate are not mutually exclusive. It's no different from people saying the same thing about chess and chess players, or go and go players, before the problem was solved. And it's not just blue collar workers that are a target of this idea. We are already starting to see automated programming moving out of the research lab and in…

Is a computer iterating through every possible chess move "skill" or just being able to compute the best odds?

Re: Where are the robotic bricklayers?

#180

Post by anigbrowl »

jiggawatts wrote: post #163
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #7

We had an "automated" pothole filler, in my town. When they purchased it, there was a bunch of hooplah. They had a news crew, in front of my house, showing it off. It spritzed asphalt into the pothole, tamped it down, then went on to the next one. All automatic! There was a driver, but he looked really bored. Months later, I have only seen one (probably the same one they demoed in front of my house). It was clearly d…

> tamping it down manually. In other words, the problem was that the machine worked perfectly, and would have resulted in a bunch of union job losses. Hence, it was "no good" and had to go.

That seems like a large assumption.
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