Advancing the world of construction robotics

In Episode 157 of The Robot Report Podcast, editors Steve Crowe and Mike Oitzman discuss the week’s news.

This week, we connect with Mike Pivac, CEO of FBR. The Australian robotics company recently brought the latest generation of its Hadrian X autonomous bricklaying robot to the U.S. for trials during the next six months.

We talk with Pivac about the market needs that fueled the development of Hadrian X over the past decade. This innovative construction robot can lay the brick walls for a residential home in a single workday.

FBR, formerly Fastbrick Robotics, offers the robot as a service (RaaS), and building contractors can schedule the “lifting of the walls” as needed, without having to worry about labor availability.

Also in this episode, we feature a conversation from the 2024 Robotics Summit between Chris Leucke of the Manufacturing Happy Hour and Joe Martino at maxon about the features and use cases for maxon motion solutions.

Show timeline

• 9:20 – News
• 23:27 – Interview with Mike Pivac, CEO of FBR
• 1:03:42 – Interview by the Manufacturing Happy Hour’s Chris Luecke of Joe Martino, senior sales engineer at maxon Group

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In the news this week

• • Alphabet commits to $5B multi-year investment into Waymo
    • Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat said during an earnings call that Alphabet Inc. is committing to a multi-year investment of up to $5 billion to Waymo LLC. Waymo currently runs commercial, fully autonomous robotaxi operations in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles. It is also testing its technology in Austin, Texas. The investment comes as robotaxis are facing fewer potential legal hurdles in California.
  • Musk now says Optimus shipments to start in 2026
    • • Tesla has pushed back its timeline for internal and external use of its humanoid robot by a year. CEO Elon Musk said that Optimus will go in “low production for Tesla internal use next year,” and the company is aiming for “high production for other companies in 2026.” Internal deployments will initially be to Telsa’s own factories.

    Tesla will have genuinely useful humanoid robots in low production for Tesla internal use next year and, hopefully, high production for other companies in 2026

    — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 22, 2024

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  • Mytra launches with new automated warehouse storage system
    • South San Francisco-based Mytra launched with $78 million through the Series B stage, plus several commercial partners. Founded by former Tesla and Rivian robotics and manufacturing leaders, the company said its automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS) can lift and move pallets weighing up to 3,000 lb.

Links from the show

Video of the Hadrian X bricklaying robot in action:

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