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Where are the robotic bricklayers?

constructionphysics.substack.com

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Re: Where are the robotic bricklayers?

#301

Post by mr_toad »

function_seven wrote: post #146
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 bein…

> But brick laying is all about looks.

I’ve seen stores with moulded facades designed to look like bricks that are attached to reinforced concrete.

Re: Where are the robotic bricklayers?

#302

Post by xyproto »

XenophileJKO wrote: post #297
NoPicklez wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just want to iterate that working an office job also carries with it its own health problems. Low physical activity from sitting all day, forward posture from sitting all day, RSI from typing and mouse movement, eye problems, overwork (Arguably more than labor jobs).

As someone that has worked digging ditches and carrying shingles up a ladder all day. I respectfully disagree. They are not remotely comparabe.

One doesn't exclude the other. All types of work-induced health problems are possible.

Re: Where are the robotic bricklayers?

#303

Post by 6nf »

exabrial wrote: post #199

If you think bricklaying is a simple task, you've probably never laid bricks, or likely ever worked a construction job. There is _a lot_ that goes into laying a brick wall. From excavation, base compaction, material choice, mortar composition and viscosity, wall type, overlap patterns, leveling, overhang patterns, set time, and much more. Using an incorrect overhang pattern for instance can allow water drops to fall…

I feel like bricks were probably shaped the way they are today specifically to help bricklayers do a good job easily and quickly. If we're moving to automated wall building maybe using traditional brick is just a waste of effort. Automation will probably benefit from using different shapes or materials. For example a human can't handle a 30 pound brick but a machine might be a lot faster if you use larger bricks with different mortar configurations.

Re: Where are the robotic bricklayers?

#304

Post by endymi0n »

mr_toad wrote: post #301
function_seven wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 bein…

> But brick laying is all about looks. I’ve seen stores with moulded facades designed to look like bricks that are attached to reinforced concrete.

From what I'm understanding the hard part of doing that stuff concrete is curation time. There's a lot of projects trying the "easy" route and effectively do additive 3D printing with concrete instead of glue. Conversely, they have the same problems... they look pretty ugly: https://www.realestate.com.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/0...

Doing it "properly" means building proper moulding, rebar, vibration casting all the stuff that sounds like almost impossible to automate with 2021 technology.

Bricks have the advantage that they're pre-cured, so you don't have to wait ages until the wall actually supports something — and if that something is just the next layer.

Re: Where are the robotic bricklayers?

#305

Post by inglor_cz »

version_five wrote: post #90
mavhc wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not destroying your body lifting heavy weights for 50 years seems like something people might like. We automated looking after the house after it's been built, no need for people scrubbing floors and clothes any more, freed up 40% of the workforce. My partially automated vacuum cleaner, clothes washer, dish washer, food cooker, water heater, all work well.

Most construction relies on fit young men to do the "heavy lifting". It would be interesting to see how the dynamics changesd if technology moved the needle on the brawn->brain scale, so that the core value prop of a construction worker was not their fitness. I'm not convinced it would be for the better. Also just want to add that working in a physical job for 50 years is much better for your body than sitting at a d…

"Also just want to add that working in a physical job for 50 years is much better for your body than sitting at a desk for 50 years. "

The experience of my neighbors from an industrial city is 100 per cent opposite. Physical jobs tend to consist of endless repetitive tasks that put a huge strain on certain joints and sinews while leaving other parts of your body idle. And many physical jobs will expose you to health risks such as breathing dust.

All the miners, steel workers, construction workers etc. I knew had major problems with their joints around 35 years of age and none of them could continue to work in their original job after 50.

On the other hand, negative effects of sedentary work can be mostly compensated by not eating processed crap (to prevent obesity) and exercising moderately three or four times a week. Plenty of people do that.

Re: Where are the robotic bricklayers?

#306

Post by inglor_cz »

The article is very informative, but its title feels like "Where are the airplanes that flap their wings like birds?"

Bricks aren't very suitable for automatization and 3D printing seems to be quite a lot more promising, even though the current early forms look clumsy.

Printing a wall gives you an ability to leave precisely calculated empty spaces for plumbing, cables, electrical sockets and whatever we are going to need in the future. This is valuable, speeds up the construction process and reduces total dust.

Re: Where are the robotic bricklayers?

#307

Post by inglor_cz »

lazide wrote: post #234
NonContro wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm planning to build a house, and it has surprised me that standardised house plans are not readily available online - particularly for European weather conditions - the emphasis is instead on custom floorplans. Creating new designs millions of times over seems like an obvious inefficiency.

People who want a house built want to build their house. Cookie cutter is for subdivisions and apartments, which those folks are often trying to escape.

Prefab houses are a thing and they aren't exactly rare. People escaping apartments usually complain about neighbors or lack of a garden, not about the floor plan.

Re: Where are the robotic bricklayers?

#308

Post by oldsecondhand »

NoPicklez wrote: post #210
makeitdouble wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> physical job for 50 years I think you’re envisioning jobs with high skill requirements or low demand, or a mix of both. Like landscaper for the town, or garbage truck operator. Otherwise you’ll generally be met with a combination of RSI, hazardous product ingestion (dust, paint fumes, exhaust…), allergies, injuries, or sheer overwork. Working a low wage low level physical job is more often than not closer to Amazon…

I just want to iterate that working an office job also carries with it its own health problems. Low physical activity from sitting all day, forward posture from sitting all day, RSI from typing and mouse movement, eye problems, overwork (Arguably more than labor jobs).

> RSI from typing

Most office jobs don't involve that much typing. You can also buy keyboards with softer switches. (RSI was more common in the days of mechanical typewriters.) Low physical acitivity can be made up for going to the gym after work.

It sounds to me you never did a day of manual labor in your life.

Re: Where are the robotic bricklayers?

#309

Post by mstipetic »

octokatt wrote: post #98
spyckie2 wrote: post #31

The value of work is not in the work done; it's in the decisions being made. It's the ability to handle edge cases, to work your way through ambiguity, to "unstuck" a stuck situation, and to resolve tricky unforeseen issues. If you build a robot that only handles the main workflow and can't handle any of the exceptions, you're not automating anything; you're building a convenience tool. Basically, you're removing som…

I’d add to the list of why partial automation isn’t worth it: it’s more satisfying to build a brick wall than babysit a bricklaying machine. Doing the physical labor is difficult. My father was a bricklayer from ten to fifty, when he finally had to stop working. But he loved showing me the buildings he built. He helped build city government buildings, schools, libraries. The pride he felt, that he’d built something w…

Since when do we account for people’s feelings when deciding to automate something or not?

Re: Where are the robotic bricklayers?

#310

Post by punnerud »

inasio wrote: post #36
punnerud wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Combine ML with a wire system used for stadium camera, and you get a cheap robot that is both strong and have a long range Wire camera example: https://youtu.be/j0K3XUqZI9w?t=187

They state in the article that the main problem is not in positioning the bricks/blocks, but on handling the cement mixture (non-Newtonian fluid...)

True. Hard to get enough people to work on the non-Newtonian problem when the robot is expensive. Easier to have several of them, and fix any mechanical problem on the robot, when the robot is simple and inexpensive
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