Contractors that produce standing metal seam roof panels on site are right inline with this concept. They bring a magic machine with a long roll of steel. Then they form and cut the panels to lengths based on the job site. It’s a super cool process to watch and very efficient.
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Animats · 13h ago
There's a video of the robotic building woodworking system for building components.[1]
(This article is from their VC firm.)
The video is so bad that, if weren't from ABB, a legit robotics company, it would clearly be a scam. They never show the robot at work for more than 1-2 seconds at a time. It's not clear how much of the job it does. The video is about 90% filler - quick cuts, talking heads, scenery.
It's not even clear what they're making. All they show is a robot moving some wood around.
Assembling building panels with robots in factories with has been done, but it takes a bigger factory, because what's being made is large.[2] That's a legit video showing the whole process
of making housing panels.
The "on site printing" robot looks very practical. A simple little wheeled robot with good navigation drives around on the concrete slab and draws lines and marks to show where things go.
contingencies · 11h ago
I visited Re:frame Systems[1] in Boston last month and it was pretty cool to see their system which was apparently primarily comprised of a series of magnetic stops on an angled work-surface tended by a giant robotic arm. Cut to length lumber would be fed in on batched trolleys and the arm would compensate for non-square lumber while pinning individual pieces in place then finally nailgun them together in to a completed structural frame. These frames then moved flatpack-style to a second site in the factory for assembly then manual fit-out. I was quite surprised at how slow the arm was, but it didn't really matter because a human would likely take longer by the time they went up a ladder a few times, had a break, and took time off for weather interruptions. They had a pretty impressive team drawing experience from most of the larger US robotics applications and were moving from single level to double level housing, with more elaborate structures planned in future.
The economics aren't a mystery, people build concrete plants on site for large buildings for the same reason. That said, it makes me wonder if there are things you could do with this sort of approach that would be even more daring. You would be unlikely to fabricate glass on site, but glazing should be doable. Making the windows on site could save time and transport costs. Duct work? We had gutters done which were rolled and welded on site. I could imagine ducting could be similarly created. Custom cabinetry would be another thing I'd wonder about. We've got a neighbor that does custom cabinetry in his 2 car garage, but that setup could be reproduced in a couple of containers. Not that you're going to put that on site at a remodel and block the street, but if you would doing a full housing development? And if you didn't need to lease space for your factory when it wasn't producing would that make for better economics?
abdullahkhalids · 11h ago
In some places in the world (like Pakistan), it is common for upper middle class people to have custom cabinetry in their homes. Usually, during house construction, the carpentry team shows up with the necessary cutting machines. Usually a back of pickup van is sufficient.
Everything is cut from full sized boards as needed on site and installed right there.
It works because wood working machinery is fairly cheap, not heavy and works off standard electric power.
jpollock · 8h ago
When cabinetry (custom or otherwise) is manufactured, it's done with large CNC machines and then assembled.
Unless you were doing a _lot_ of cabinets, the labor cost of an idle cabinet maker overwhelms the shipping cost.
On-site, you're paying the cabinet maker to sand the wood.
Glulam beams might be manufacturable on site—and it might even be better, since you can make very long glulam beams, but long beams are more expensive to ship.
RainyDayTmrw · 3h ago
This sounds... surprising. I thought we were collectively very good at logistics, and that transport was comparatively cheaper than most things. That's why chicken meat takes a round-trip from the US to China and back to the US, because the labor arbitrage saves more than the transport costs, right? That's back and forth between hemispheres!
general1726 · 5h ago
Factorio Automation 1 research finished.
rotexo · 14h ago
Reminds me of Nadia traveling all over Mars after the first failed revolution and building habitats from scratch using the huge robots in KSR’s Mars trilogy.
Very cool, but probably not solving the factors involved in housing unaffordability.
youngtaff · 13h ago
In’t the size of the container a limitation?
In the UK, prefab house panels can often larger than a container and constructed on large platforms
octoberfranklin · 13h ago
Most factories have lots of utility connections to their equipment -- kilovolt mains power, compressed refrigerants, toxic waste outputs which must be chemically neutralized before disposal.
Connecting and disconnecting these utilities requires special skills and doing it wrong has major consequences. Special licenses and permits are almost always required by government regulators.
It's the "HVAC guy problem", writ large.
mschuster91 · 15h ago
A nice concept - but at the end, it's still a structure made out of wood and cardboard, and if the staff isn't trained, well just look up Cy Porter and his videos of home inspections for the utter idiocy and cost-cutting [1]...
With a few hundred highly trained consultants spread through major markets and working directly with contractors with decent jobflow to train them, it could work.
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Assembling building panels with robots in factories with has been done, but it takes a bigger factory, because what's being made is large.[2] That's a legit video showing the whole process of making housing panels.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMC-Ls0vI14
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3al52UWoc0
https://www.facit-homes.com/building-process
[1] https://www.reframe.systems/
Everything is cut from full sized boards as needed on site and installed right there.
It works because wood working machinery is fairly cheap, not heavy and works off standard electric power.
Unless you were doing a _lot_ of cabinets, the labor cost of an idle cabinet maker overwhelms the shipping cost.
On-site, you're paying the cabinet maker to sand the wood.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGEF1T3omec
Very cool, but probably not solving the factors involved in housing unaffordability.
In the UK, prefab house panels can often larger than a container and constructed on large platforms
Connecting and disconnecting these utilities requires special skills and doing it wrong has major consequences. Special licenses and permits are almost always required by government regulators.
It's the "HVAC guy problem", writ large.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/@cyfyhomeinspections