Robots break new ground in construction
SAN FRANCISCO» As a teenager working for his dad’s construction business, Noah Ready-Campbell dreamed that robots could take over the dirty, tedious parts of his job, such as digging and leveling soil for building projects.
Now the former Google engineer is turning that dream into a reality with Built Robotics, a startup that’s developing technology to allow bulldozers, excavators and other construction vehicles to operate themselves.
“The idea behind Built Robotics is to use automation technology make construction safer, faster and cheaper,” said Ready-Campbell, standing in a dirt lot where a small bulldozer moved mounds of earth without a human operator.
The San Francisco startup is part of a wave of automation that’s transforming the construction industry, which has lagged behind other sectors in technological innovation.
Workers at Berich Masonry in Englewood recently spent several weeks learning how to operate a bricklaying robot known as SAM. That’s short for Semi-Automated Mason, a $400,000 machine which is made by New Yorkbased Construction Robotics. The machine can lay about 3,000 bricks in an eight-hour shift — several times more than a mason working by hand.
SAM’s mechanical arm picked up bricks, covered them with mortar and carefully placed them to form the outside wall of a new elementary school. Working on a scaffold, workers loaded the machine with bricks and scraped off excess mortar left behind by the robot.
Bricklayer Michael Walsh says the robot lessens the load on his body, but he doesn’t think it will take his job. “It ain’t going to replace people,” Walsh said.