Tackling Building Costs and Skilled Worker Shortages

Could Automation aid tackling building costs and skilled worker shortages, whilst improving quality and timely delivery?  It is an issue for Guildford where once a development is approved getting buildings constructed on time and cost is an issue.  Often delivered buildings are not to the quality and budget desired and automation and prefabrication could aid this.   

Construction faces a deepening shortage of skilled labour, and bricklaying is one of the hardest areas to staff. Several companies are looking at how greater automation can be applied to building.  Alongside automation there is also prefabrication where elements of buildings are built in a factory setting.

As an example of what is being created is an Autonomous System for brick laying on site developed by a Dutch company Monumental.  Monumental has delivered a number of projects including a few in the UK.  

The autonomous system consists of a software platform that manages the design, operation and quality control of the process.  The software allows central and site level monitoring of operations. The software is complimented by three machines that work in concert to deliver the brickwork that can be patterned and curved if required.

Bricklaying - Pisa

Pisa builds brick walls autonomously by combining bricklaying and mortar application in a single coordinated process. Pisa is equipped to place bricks with millimetre precision, on mortar which it has applied evenly between each course.

Autonomous brick feeding - Petra

Petra keeps Pisa continuously stocked with bricks throughout the building process. It carries up to 128 bricks at a time, and feeds individual bricks on demand. Petra can selectively retrieve bricks so can handle multiple brick types or colours.  This allows for custom wall designs with patterns, colour variations, and mixed brick types.

On-demand mortar mixing - Panama

Panama handles mortar mixing. This has proven a challenge to solve due to the material’s unpredictability. The machine supplies fresh mortar, formulated with optimal hydration for ideal viscosity, to the bricklayer.