Every few weeks someone sends us a video of a robot laying bricks or plastering a wall with a caption like “tradies are finished.” I get why it winds people up, so I went looking at what’s actually real versus what’s a slick promo clip, and here’s where we landed. Some of it is genuinely impressive, most of it is a long way from your average site, and none of it can pick up a set of plans and run a job on its own. Here are 5 worth a look, with a straight take on each:
1. The bricklayer, Hadrian X. Built in Perth by FBR, it works off a 3D model and lays the blockwork for a house structure in about a day. Impressive, and it’s ours. The catch: it’s been in development for over a decade, it does the structural blockwork not the finish, and you won’t see one on a standard suburban block any time soon.
2. The plasterer, Okibo. Rolls up to a wall and renders, sands and paints it on its own. Clever gear. But it works best in big, open, controlled spaces, and someone still has to set it up, mask off and fix what it misses.
3. The chalkie, Dusty Robotics. Scoots around the slab and prints the whole floor plan onto the concrete, every wall line. This one I actually rate for the repetitive setout, saves the knees. Still needs the model done right and a person running it.
4. The screeder, Somero laser screed. Levels a big pour to a few millimetres across a warehouse floor. Been on commercial sites for years, needs a skilled operator, and it’s big-slab territory, not your average job.
5. The demo machine, Brokk. Remote-controlled, tears through concrete and brick while the operator stands clear. This one’s more about getting a person out of a dangerous spot than replacing anyone. Genuinely useful, genuinely niche.
So are we worried on your behalf? Not really. Every one of these does a narrow, repetitive, body-wrecking slice of the work, in the right conditions, with a skilled person running it. The trade, the judgment, the problem-solving on a messy site, that’s still yours. What is worth doing is keeping half an eye on it, because the gear that saves your back and your time is worth knowing about before the bloke down the road does.
That’s a big part of what TradieTech27 is about, seeing this stuff in person and making your own call, not taking a promo video’s word for it. Reckon I’ve got it wrong? Tell us at hello@tradietech.show
Watch them in action:
Hadrian X (FBR): https://www.theb1m.com/video/inside-hadrianx-bricklaying-robot
Okibo: https://thisisconstruction.com.au/news-articles/a-i-robot-can-plaster-render-and-paint-autonomously
Dusty Robotics: https://www.dustyrobotics.com
Somero laser screed: https://www.somero.com
Brokk: https://brokk.com/au/video
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