Arcadis Construction, Engineering & Design by GineersNow Drones & Technologies in Construction Industry | Page 49

Brick Laying Now Made Easier and Faster
With This Construction Robot
It is six times faster than a mason.
Time has already come that robots change the
way we construct our buildings. Proof? This
brick-laying robot that is faster than its human
counterparts.
Called SAM, which conveniently stands for
Semi-Automated Mason, it can lay 3,000 bricks
per day as compared to the human builder which
can only average around 500 bricks per day. That
makes SAM six times faster than a mason.
It makes use of a conveyor belt, a robotic arm,
and concrete pump to do its construction job.
The genius behind this invention is New York-
based Construction Robotics, which, as its name
suggests, develops robots that assist in the con-
struction.
Keyword there is ‘assist’, because the team be-
hind Construction Robotics insists that the work-
er’s jobs will not be lost to this robot and instead
only help them, at least so far. SAM is designed
to work side-by-side a mason for onsite masonry
construction.
“SAM100 is a bricklaying robot for onsite masonry
construction. Designed to work with the mason,
assisting with the repetitive and strenuous task of
lifting and placing each brick. The mason will con-
tinue to own the site setup and final wall quality,
but will improve efficiency through the operation
of SAM,” the company said.
For now, SAM cannot completely eliminate the
need for masons on work sites because humans
are still required to load bricks and mortar into the
system, as well as pointing, brick tying, and clean-
ing up the excess mortar from joints after bricks
have been laid.
According to the company, its main advantages
are ergonomics and economics: lower health and
safety impact on the workforce; an increase in
masons’ productivity by 3-5x while reducing lifting
by 80%+; and labor savings.
This isn’t the first time that SAM was introduced to
the construction industry. Its CEO and co-founder
Scott Peters presented it June of 2016, but now it
has a major update.
“SAM100 is faster than ever and running OS 2.0
which now allows soldier course bricks.”
Construction Leaders • May 2017
47