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Thu March 28 2024

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Block-laying robot achieves commercial laying speed [- with video]

3 Jun 20 Australian technology company FBR has announced that its construction robot has achieved a peak laying rate of over 200 blocks per hour.

The company’s second Hadrian X, H02, has achieved the new top speed periodically during routine testing as part of FBR’s continuous improvement programne. H02’s average laying rate across a full house build has been improved significantly and its top speed is approximately 300% faster than the rate H01 was achieving in February 2019.

The company said that a sustained laying rate of over 200 blocks per hour throughout the course of a full house build makes the Hadrian X commercially competitive and its use-case highly compelling when measured against traditional manual bricklaying in most markets around the world. FDR is now focusing on delivering that speed on complex building designs for overseas markets and customers. 

Managing director & CEO Mike Pivac said: “We’ve achieved so many amazing technical milestones over the last two years, but this is the first time that we have been able to prove the real commercial case of the Hadrian X in practice. When you consider that manual brick and block laying costs globally vary anywhere from $10 per square metre to $100 per square metre, we are already cost competitive across a broad range of the market at 200 blocks per hour. However, we are continuing to increase the lay speed and improve the Hadrian X and accordingly our cost of laying will continue to decrease while the market for the machines will grow significantly.” 

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Development of H02 has been focused on the implementation of software upgrades but in parallel H01 is undergoing more substantive upgrades of both software and its components. In the coming months, these are expected to deliver an even greater speed increase for H01 over and above that achieved by H02.

The company has produced a video featuring chief technical officer, Mark Pivac, demonstrating the improved lay rate of the Hadrian X.

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MPU
MPU

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