Jaco

Robots lay all the brick walls of a house for the first time in the Netherlands Amsterdam-based startup Monumental announced that its robots completed all the brickwork on a house in the city of Almere. The machines handled straight and curved walls, different types of bricks and even laid bricks to form raised lettering. The company’s CEO, Salar al-Khafaji, announced the results on October 28. Over the coming weeks, the robots are expected to be used in the construction of another 15 houses. However, the technology is limited to bricklaying and does not mean the entire construction process is fully automated. Humans still supervise the machines and carry out tasks the robots cannot handle. Monumental hopes the technology will speed up construction and help address the labour shortage. However, it is too early to talk about robots replacing construction workers on a mass scale: the system’s reliability and cost-effectiveness still need to be tested in large-scale construction projects.