Remember Zenith and their Luddite "hand crated" TVs that did not use those newfangled printed circuit boards? Well, today electronics are mostly made by robots.
I see very little brick being used in new buildings today. Glass is clearly king. Those that have brick often use large wall panels of brick that are assembled in factories and not laid onsite.
Duplicating human movement like that robt is an absurd use of robotics. A robot that laid bricks, like a chicken lays eggs, moving down the line, with a steady supply of exactly made mortar, or "glue" - would be more efficient. It could also have its own scaffolding system, helping it rise to higher heights faster then humans could, and in tighter places...
Better yet, robotic machinery could simply extrude a wall, like a form of adobe. Who needs brick and mortar anymore? The surface of the extruded substance could be etched to look and feel like brick.
Then of course theres prefab wall building. You can buy prefab foundation walls, why not upper level exterior walls, with a brick face, shipped in, and assembled on site with fewer workers.
IMO, prefab is the future...its the most efficient, most resource saving, and requires a lesser skilled workforce. And its prime for DIY exploitation.
Dont get me wrong, skilled masons are awesome...some real artist/craftspeople out there. But its an awfully hard job...leaving far too many of its workers broken and busted, if not outright crippled. Vast majority of which work and get injured without health insurance.
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The robot is providing a full vertical joint of mortar between bricks, whereas the human is only scooping a little dab of mortar around the corner of each brick. Unless I'm missing something I'd bet the robot's wall is going to be a lot more water resistant than the human's.
Of course bricklayers are not safe from robots. What do they think they do, brain surgery?
If robots are not fast enough today you can be sure they will be getting faster every day, but people can improve like that unless they edit they genes or convert them in cyborgs.
Foundation work in almost all new residential is formed concrete. The front of the house might have a single brick veneer.
You can't lay brick in the rain, high winds, when it is too cold and it's hell in the summer on a scaffold.
You have to make enough money as a mason and tender to cover the days you can't work.
Dangerous work setting scaffolding or tearing it down up in the rain.
No one ever got rich laying brick.
I wonder how their skills compare with skills of bricklayers from 100 years ago?
There are robots in use that lay brick. But they do not set up the job. Only humans can do that. Resist.
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Perhaps the best thing about robots taking over menial labor, not to say brick laying is a menial task, is that they will not need to be paid a so-called “living wage.”
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SOME elements of bricklaying -- a straight, simple wall like this -- are monotonous (though not menial). In general, bricklayers are skilled craftsmen and often in a union. They are not the people about whom we talk when we say "living wage" -- that is more likely to be those in retail, food service, child care and elder care.
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Concerned...disagree. out in the burbs and rural America bricklayers are mostly immigrants - many from Europe, not just South America or Mexico - who are recent emigres, and totally non union. Working for local contractors, etc. The guys installing that driveway, walkways, front steps, pool surrounds in suburbia - I'd lay good money are nonUnion. Why? I know them personally. I supply them with resources.
Have you ever seen Dutch corners? or any number of ways bricks have been laid-I challenge New Yok residents to look carefully at the buldings on major thoroughfares and examine the patterns of the brick-most laid before the 2nd half of the Great War. It is possible to lay them in all kinds of useful and attractice ways that serve architects and builders-and, in NYC, where we have wind, bricks are a major portion of a buildings strength and beauty. The biggest error ever that I can recall-in the city's brick construction was the scam in which white faced brick was sold to builders as a solution to the "lookalike" problem of newer brick buildings with the federal and state government's housing projects, that used plain red brick-the architects and owners wanted to be seen as "better, different, with greater eclat and sophistication"(White Brick would do this?) and so, it was decided to use the awful "Miami Beach white". Much of this brick bacame dirty anyway and dirt always shows more and quicker on a white background.
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While my home isn't brick, except the chimney and fireplace....even those show detail and skill in bricklaying and have lasted now 92 years in hard use with almost no maintenance or repair. That's quality!
Many homes in my area, though, are equally old and often brick or partial brick exteriors -- and if you really LOOK, the skill of the bricklayer is there. They did not simply pile bricks one on top of the other. There is a great of finesse in finishing out corners or making curved and arches -- patterns in the brickwork or incorporating other colors, textures, fancy mortar or stucco elements. It is a simple, honest kind of artistry from good craftsmen...who though long dead, are still represented well by the quality of work that has lasted a century or more.
Only lefty liberals in their white collar jobs in air conditioned offices manage to demean this. Yeah, robots. That will solve everything.
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So they lay a wall in a parking lot, and then? bulldoze it and fill the land fill? Why not have a contest to build an animal shelter or a clinic?
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Robot's won't take over laying bricks instead of humans on site, as is tried in the video with this article. Instead they will build the walls elsewhere in a factory, like in this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXPdpj7MU6A&t=0s&list=UUF6NHT3J-...
My house has been build with these walls. Each wall is custom sized. They are than transported to the work and craned on the right place.
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Move over, John Henry!
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“The machines will never replace the human,” Mr. Buczkiewicz said.
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
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“There’s a human element to a craft that you don’t get from a robot.”
One of those "human elements" may be inconsistency. I know very little about masonry and bricklaying, but if there are any variables that only humans can spot and mitigate, robots will at best, stop and turn on the flashing red light and siren.
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They, robots, would also do a scan of the site, analyse and determine (not estimate) how many bricks, and how much mortar is needed. Then mix the mortar to exact specs, everytime. Cut fewer bricks, reducing waste, and expense to the home owner...reducing padded bills.
The robot would have already built the wall in its AI "brain", plus it could save the build, analyze the data and be more efficient the next time. Just like a human, but much faster. It could replicate and duplicate...
Never mind a hypothetical robot - when one complains illegal immigrants are taking away construction jobs like these RIGHT NOW for lower wages, from American workers (which they are - I'm in the trades) "Desk Dwelling" liberals say "Well nobody want's those jobs anyway. Who wants that dirty work?".
These jobs used to provide a working class/middle class lifestyle. Bricklaying is Unionized in large swaths and they aren't happy about illegal immigration driving wages down in construction either.
(And I'm liberal- I just work in the trades and don't live in hypothetical land)
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Tell me, whom is hiring all these "illegals"?!
As for the "Desk Dwelling" liberals, (what a load!) it seems they have more empathy than their "Desk Dwelling" conservatives. Yes?!
I didn't, and don't, hear our party saying "nobody wants those jobs."
(A progressive, retired carpenter/jack of trades, worked in San Diego/So Cal. ie. ground zero for immigration.)
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Many of these same commenters, rooting for and marveling at the brick layers art, without seeing the work being done otherwise, would no doubt be saying "Those are dirty, hard, jobs that U.S. citizens don't want. Let illegal immigrants have them for pennies." if this was an immigration story.
Funny how a little perspective changes ones views. And for those who think undocumented workers don't take away/undercut these exact masonry jobs from Union or other workers - you obviously ain't been on a construction site lately.
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Ignatius. I have. No illegals on union sites. Dont be silly.
I grew up when every guy, their brother and uncle were "contractors". 70s. I learned to swing a hammer every summer from 8th grade thru my teens and college. I was lucky, I had skilled teachers.
But most were slovenly, and not all that skilled. Tons of non-code work done in the 'burbs. Theres a well circulated myth that millions of high skilled white male carpenters were suddenly put out of work by illegals. Not true. Most left on their own, as the work was brutal, leaving for white collar jobs, that were plentiful.
The ones who hired the illegals were at first the cheats and subpar contractors, looking to make a quick and cheap buck by exploiting the per diem labor, and their customers naivete. I watched them proliferate, often had to clean up their mistakes.
But the story not often told is that many of the immigrants took the work seriously and learned how to be better craftsmen...moving on to more quality based crews. Or caught the attention of same. Or started their own, and have passed down the skills to their sons, etc.
Any white guy can lay bricks. They are more then welcome to go learn how. Trouble is too many expect to be paid top dollar, simply for being white! Then expect to crack the beers at lunch, and be home by 3-4pm. Most Immigrant crews work long past 3.
I known them as hard workers, willig to learn. But Ive fired many an arrogant white guy, who was resistent to learning from these guys...
Where have all the building trades gone? I am an architect and have been hearing this lament for the past 40 years.
1. I grew many male friends growing who did NOT attend college and they were NEVER encouraged to pursue construction on their own. Trades were not covered in voc tracks in the h-schools even back then.
2. A 23 year old person trying to figure out what to do in life might be hard pressed to find anything or anyone encouraging them to enter the building trades, even if they enjoyed working hard outdoors and can tolerate using chemical toilets day in and day out.
3. The old world “wet” construction trades in the USA (masonry, plaster, terrazzo / tiling) have always been fed by immigration and to a very real extent in the south, the voc-tech track that African American males were slotted into dating back to slavery. These are vocations that pay a decent working-class wage, take genuine skills but that are not immediately presented as options to those for whom they might be well suited.
IMO, robots will never fully replace masons; however, the amount of masonry used in typical building construction will continue its steady decline…for now. Often it is not even seen…enclosing mostly shafts, stairs and fire rated partitions in buildings that otherwise appear to be all prefabricated aluminum and glass. And while architectural styles may wax and wane, we will always need masons for the considerable amount of hand work that goes into restoration work.
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Jerry Rice and his father used to lay bricks in the south. Jerry Rice is considered by many the best player to play in the NF, btw..
Bricklaying skills may have contributed to his dexterity and control.
In middle-class neighborhoods, you rarely see brick being used anymore, it's almost 100% vinyl siding. The folks who could afford brick, they just build an even bigger house instead. In the quest for raw square footage, durability doesn't seem to count for anything anymore.
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This is one way the current educational system is failing both our children and Country. Instead of expecting that all kids must go on to college, we need to bring back the trades into the schools. Not everyone is cut out for higher education nor should they. Put apprenticeship programs back into tech schools and let kids get their hands dirty again.
When will AI machines replace optometrists? I just need a new pair of glasses and don’t want to shell out $120 for a lens prescription. “Which is clearer? Picture No. 1 or Picture No. 2? Number 1 or Number 2? Next frame, No. 1 or No 2 ?
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As a surgeon, I’m not worried. I guess you can’t ever say never, but if it can’t beat the brick layers...
Beautiful story!
I will share this article with my students, pre-K, K & 1st grade. I am writing/illustrating children's books to teach and inspire young kids about what the stuff that surrounds them is made of (thestuffkids.com). One of my characters is Walter, he is made of concrete.
After reading your article...I think Walter needs a friend who is made of brick, I'll call her Mason, not Sam. ; )
Your article demonstrates why designers are moving to products like terracotta rainscreen facades, which come in large sizes and have no mortar in the joints. They can even be pre-assembled and quickly installed onsite. Some people even call it the modern brick.
Ron
Have you ever watched Fastest Trowel on the Block? It's like watching the Olympics. It doesn't matter if it is a sport you don't follow or care about. You know you're watching some amazing human feats. No way is a robot replacing these guys any time soon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zevLEPWcmpY
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YAY, HUMANS!!! John Henry would be proud...
Bravo, Bricklayers!
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The idea that robots will "never" replace humans is absurd. The craftsmanship is real, but it's also rote and objective. Robots will DEFINITELY replace all bricklayers. The current SAM iteration is essentially analogous to a steam engine. But the bullet train is coming.
Maybe as an off-site assembly. Then trucked in and erected.
Most job sites aren't prepped and manicured for these robots to function.
Not to say it won't/can't happen, but it could be a longgggg while.
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I love it when people--even some scientists and engineers--say, "Robots will never. . ." or "Computers will never. . ." Foolish statements to make in light of history. If you think there will never be a robot that can lay bricks (if people still want bricks) better and faster than a human, and operate essentially 24/7, you are kidding yourself. Houses and buildings (and just about everything else) will be built primarily by machines eventually.
Robotic bricklayers will happen. Machines don't tire. In 1987, I did see an automated factory in Pontiac, Michigan, of GM's then-prototype SUVs. The painting robots painted. The human in the control room supervised the robots and the computers to make sure there weren't any glitches, pauses or lags in the conveyor belt. Another human inserted the car doors by hand.
All of this makes me sad, but...we now need to keep hurry and catch up.
The economy of scale is difficult in the U.S. because our cost of living is high. Much less expensive to import from China. Instead of charging high tariffs to other countries, we should find ways to improve the cost-ratio of manufacturing goods here.
Our corporate structure of high officers making a stratospheric salary compared to the rank and file is as much the cause of why we make fewer 'things' here, as much any other cost factor.
America, a free and expensive country.
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As a little boy growing up in Italy I was fascinated by the bricklayers working in a perfect synchronized team. Only today I rationalize the reason: they were creating something from nothing and for me it was, and still is, a great feeling.
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As it is for them too.
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There are likely other factors involved that will limit the robot's ability to dominate the trade. In this competition they are all standing on the ground working, but bricklayers often work at great heights. Scaffolding to hold a man is time consuming to erect but do-able in the course of a day's work. What extent of scaffolding is required for a brick robot? And a building without corners? Not too many of those, although a wall along the Mexican border comes to mind! There's an application. Other than that, I think brick mason's will be around for a long time to come.
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I read this with great sadness in my heart. I worked with a lot of US masons and Bricklayers in reconstruction training in Haiti after the earthquake. Lots of good, hardworking folks doing masonry. I moved on to robotics a few years ago and am now in robotics research. For most construction the question is not if humans will be replaced by robots but rather when and how many will lose their jobs.
The improvements in things like vision or path planning only need to happen once, and then they can be replicated. These advances are only speeding up as commodity hardware and open source software get shared with industry. What I see here is a larger race between John Henry and the Machine. Unfortunately the machine will win, and it will happen sooner than most people would feel comfortable with.
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Give it ten years and the robot wins by a factor of eight. It is an absolutely repetitive, do it the same way every time task. Sooner or later, and mostly sooner that is going to be a robots job.
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The original brick homes were very expensive and had very thick walls, so were mostly built by wealthy folks.
The modern brick home is basically imitating those homes with brick facades. Realizing the mortar eventually dries out and cracks, requiring it to be replaced.
Foundation walls are now being replaced with pre-cast concrete sections which go in stronger, faster, and cheaper.
If you really want the brick aesthetics or status, the issue isn't really automating bricklaying, but rather re-engineering the entire concept.
My new retaining wall, for example, uses dry-stacked blocks with auto-setback ..... no mortar used or needed....no masons needed.
Bricks are themselves an artifact of human labor and are sized exactly to be lifted and placed easily by a pair of human hands, by definition. When robots come into construction, sooner or later they will come up with their own unit of material, probably much larger than a brick, perhaps a masonry panel, that robots can handle with ease. Or a specialized robot will be built that can manage much larger bricks and will thus be much faster.
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I loved this article and the pics are great -- but it misses the larger point.
Basically, building materials are rapidly progressing so that newer materials will largely replace the need to lay bricks at all. No Robot Needed. Building materials are already being manufactured to look like brick facades AND even more importantly, they come in large sizes that 100% supplant the need for individual bricks. And they are looking better and more realistic in the last 10 years. One office building went up in my town and I saw the brick facades and they looked good and they went up in one day. The only upside is that humans mounted the facade onto the building.
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Interesting that bricklaying contractors are having a hard time finding employees. Seems to be a problem pervasive in the construction industry. This Old House did an episode about it. My contractor here in the mid-Atlantic said that in a few years all the guys who know plumbing and electrical will be retired with no one to replace them, because they struggle to find employees. How did we lose a generation of people willing to pursue these types of careers?
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They were told to go to college, get a degree in whatever they want, and it'll all work out.
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Cut throat competition. Lowest bidder wins. Often paid by the foot. Seasonal in many parts of the country. Sporadic work and constantly looking for the next job, city, state.... Often Boom or Bust periods. Often hard, dangerous and in all temps & conditions. Once the body wears out, and it will, one is left hanging.
But it was satisfying and fulfilling in its own way.
Retired Carpenter.
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nick: what you said, only you left some out. They were told to go to college and pay $$$$ tuition, get a degree in Gender Studies or Feminist Theory or Art History or "Communications" -- and told they would get fantastic high paying white collar jobs in skyscrapers in Big Blue Coastal cities and yes, it would all work out and they'd have the upper class American dream. Then reality sunk in.
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One of the jobs a robot is unable to do is replace farmworkers. Thus far, no mechanical device can replace the skill of knowing when and exactly where to quickly and delicately cut vegetables at the precise state of ripeness. Oddly, we denigrate these low-wage jobs as being "unskilled."
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They said the same thing about grain harvesting 150 years ago.
Underpaid is what they are.
Try a robot on a roof some time. Or painting a house in a historical neighborhood, especially if he runs into something unexpected like a bird's nest or a beehive. Ask any horse owner who can't find a farrier whether they would allow a robot near their animals. Robots, like autonomous vehicles, belong in controlled environments. The unique capabilities of humans encompass a flexible, adaptable body as well as the human mind. Those who think robots will replace humans spend too much of their thinking time in highly controlled environments to appreciate this.
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And what percentage of the human race work as farriers? What percentage paint historical houses? Sure, there are a few, very specific jobs that it would be hard for robots to replace for the foreseeable future, but the vast majority of us work in tasks that vary from being menial at the low-end, to repetitive at the high-end. I work as an accountant (I'm a CPA), all things considered, that's a fairly skilled profession. It took years of education and tens of thousands in student loans, on top of work experience and professional certification to get me to the point I'm at.........and I really have little doubt that a computer program could do the overwhelming majority of what I do.
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Agreed, for many existing jobs robots could/can do.
As for the trades, percentage? Huge. Lots! Millions.
Any preexisting structure, which are in the hundreds of millions, will be very hard for a robotic machine to work in.
CM nailed it. (pun intended.)
Robotics may be in the future. Key word future.
But not any time soon.
The scale and individual uniqueness per job, makes it cost prohibitive.
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The reason why there's a shortage of bricklayers is that not much gets built with brick anymore, and the fewer masons out there the more builder's use other materials. The robot won't win, bricklaying will simply disappear (except as an artisanal craft) and be replaced with some other more efficient to build with and more efficient energy-wise material.
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It strikes me as much more likely than robot bricklayers that brickwork like this will be rarer. Newer more cost-effective materials will replace brick and can also be quite beautiful.
I met a guy recently that told me his company is making windows that collect solar energy and I heard that Tesla is working on roof tiles that do as well.
There are newish faux marble alternatives that I've seen that are gorgeous.
I doubt a robot that lays brick will be successful. And let's not forget that automation that puts all the people out of work is in nobodies best interest. And ask each of these bricklayers if they would rather work in a tiny cubicle all day?
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Great article! I've set some brick, but, uh, not at 9 bricks an minute. Just fast enough to consume a weekend.
Our stonemasons are a historical treasure, as this article points out. Bui and Kisby also raise the issue of supply and demand that motivates a robotics approach.
But that robot in the picture looks like it has a ways to go before it produces something decent. I wouldn't buy that house that it sided.
Then there is the question, when do we eliminate all human jobs? And what do we do after that?
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Sure this somewhat poor robot can't beat a team of the best working way faster than they would if getting paid for a job. Get a better robot, programmed better and working say 20 hours a day and these elite teams would be destroyed. Now I want many jobs that a robot could do not to be done by a robot to allow jobs for citizens, but only highly skilled jobs can't eventually be done by automation.
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When the robot can build Brunelleschi's Dome, then bricklayers can worry.
In the meantime masons & architects might craft masonry that reflects the great traditions of the bricklayer's art instead of these canyons of terracotta that look like they were laid by an automaton.
Artisans can make the robots obsolete if they'd work with their hands & hearts again instead of banging out more mechanized production that degrades our esthetic experience.
I was more troubled watching robots carve complex components of cathedral groin-vault ribs from solid stone. But then what mason carves stone anymore...
But really builders, haven't we had enough of boring redbrick walls in the modern urban blight-scape? Masonry was once the most magnificent work people made.
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It is inevitable that robots would start to do labor intensive jobs and it is good that they can. The human mind has much more to offer yet no one says that one cannot lay brick to build your own wall at home. Working with your hands is important to a human being not only for memory but it can be a form of relaxation. Their is beauty in a human working with their hands that most "thinkers" cannot see. Let the robot do the work of construction, manufacturing and other repetitive jobs and let the human who has free will do the work they love, bricklaying or whatever.
What percentage of the population really and truly works with their mind on a regular basis doing non-repetitive work? In fact, "non-repetitive work" is almost an oxymoron: if someone is paying you to do something, what you will be doing is at least predictable enough that someone knows it needs to be done.
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Why would they want to continue with brick? There are two things that people should think first about brick: 1) It's not structural. In residential construction anyway rarely does brick actually hold up your house. How could it? It goes on after the roof is on. Technically it's a veneer. 2) It's not reinforced, so it will shake apart quite readily in an earthquake.
Rather what I'd like to see is best described as an automated concrete form: one that could do straight and curved. The business faces would be made out of a hard rubber. Begin with one that can do 2ft pour lifts, vibrate the concrete, maybe even place reinforcement, strip itself and slide across the wall it just built. You could make it travel on rails that will later become part of the structure or hollow tubes that could later be used as electrical conduit.
Coordination with curing and vertical rebar would be the biggest problems.
The room for creativity here is infinite. Makes me wish I were immortal.
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This is great. Love to see stories highlighting skilled labor. Take a second and take a close look at the next brick wall you see. It was done by somebody using their hands, skills, and brain.
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I just look at the brick wall on my house. I wish they had used a machine to do it.
Here's a story that warms and chills my heart. Some sixty years ago I worked as a labor (see the guys in the black shirts in the film) for a brick construction firm on the southwest side of Chicago. That lasted two years. Had I stayed in the trade, become a union bricklayer, I might have been a happier man, or, more likely, a bent over broken (or dead) man. The work was brutal. It takes a toll. The next time someone shows you a spread sheet or a Paul Ryan speech proclaiming you can fix Social Security by extending (again) the age before these earned benefits are paid, show them this film, show them a stack of bricks and concrete blocks, show them a mortar mixer, show them a wheel barrel filled with these heavy building materials, and show them these expert craftsmen bent over a brick wall in the sun and the wind for eight hours a day, hearing again and again the command: "Line up!"
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You tube has videos of bricklaying machines. This is an old story and that's not the only machine that does such work.
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Today's AI is nothing compared to what we will have in the coming decades. At least 30% of the work force will be replaced. I am an attorney of nearly 38 years; in five years, most of my colleagues will be out of work because their rote reactions will be deemed less efficient than computerized decisions. Court rooms will become museums and law offices will cease to exist.
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Small correction we have no real AI today, we at best have systems programmed to learn by experience. Real AI could do any job a human could do and way better and faster. And yes as in the past where legal secretaries replaced somewhat lawyers, expert systems will replace a lot of legal work.
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The issue for bricklayers is not the threat of robots; it's the threat of poverty. If you google bricklayer pay rates you find figures in the $45-50,000/year range. But other surveys come up with much lower rates, down around $10/hour or less than $25K/year:
https://www.indeed.com/salaries/Brick-Mason-Salaries,-Raleigh-NC
You can only work if the weather permits, the work is not steady , and it's hard to support a family on typical wages. Other than that, it's all good.
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I wonder if liberal media will play down the human tragedy of the robotics era the way they played down the miseries of large-scale job loss and downward pressure on wages that globalization heralded?
One indication that they will is the fact that the media rarely, if ever, mention that most of the robotic technology was developed at public universities. In other words workers, through their taxes, have been funding the R&D for technology that will replace them.
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Ed, despite your good points you lost me, and will lose others, by your use of "liberal media." This paper is one example of pointing out things like big pharmaceutical companies using public dollars that fund research to make new drugs; socialized research for privatized profit. We, as a country, have been fighting large scale job loss since the first steam powered machine was invented. As for globalization, that began when Columbus and others first got in their boats and went to look for spices and other riches.
A number of commenters have tried to make the point that the robot can't do as good a job as the bricklayer, or as fast, or handle complex designs, or work to a level, or work up high.
I'm sorry, but you're all quite wrong about this. As Charles from Colorado Springs has already told us, there's no reason why a robot couldn't be built. And I'll state that it could be built *TODAY* to accomplish all of these goals.
Imagine, if you will, a robot with a single very large, two-section pantographic arm. The arm is large enough to reach (say) thirty or fifty feet in all directions (including up), something like a modern "cherry picker". The arm joints have precise angle measurement sensors and perhaps the end of the arm has its position sensed by lasers (LIDAR). Up the arm flows a steady stream of mortar and bricks. At the base of the device, an automated saw can cut the specialized bricks needed to form corners, arches, and other "fancy details". The end of the arm contains a device to deploy the mortar, place, align, and press the bricks, and a device to tool the mortar joints.
Such a machine could lay tens of bricks per minute and to a better accuracy than any human bricklayer. Using machine vision, it could inspect the work it's doing. We might even have to program it to inject subtle inaccuracies to make the finished wall look "more authentic".
As soon as there's an economic driving force to build such a machine, rest assured, it can and will be built.
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I agree; the technology is there. Only it would be very, very costly.
Meanwhile, you can hire an illegal alien to lay those bricks for $5 cash an hour, under the table -- and not pay any workers comp, pay rolls taxes, health insurance, pensions, 401K plans or anything else. Just $5 cash, under the table.
Vs. a $1,000,000 robot.
You tell me which you'd hire.
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As a design engineer, I predict there will be no problem developing a robot that can lay brick as fast as, as well as, and more consistently than a human. This will happen as soon as the economics of it add up.
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Unfortunately we, and by that I mean humans, not just bricklayers, have been here many times before. You can forget about the ability of machines to calculate faster and more accurately than the human brain. Go back to the mid 1800's and It was a constant for people to deride trains because of how inefficient they were on every level. They could carry a good amount, but they were slow, and they could only travel a very short distance. It led to an extended period where men would exhibit what was believed to be human prowess and the inherent superiority of man over technology by outrunning locomotives. Early on this was extremely easy. The first electric locomotive was built in 1837 by Robert Davidson and it was powered by batteries. It was also the earliest battery electric locomotive. Davidson later built a much larger locomotive which he exhibited at the Royal Scottish Society of Arts Exhibition in 1841. It was far superior and the vehicle, which weighed seven tons, had two direct-drive reluctance motors and could haul a load of six tons. The problem was that its maximum speed was four miles per hour (6 kilometers per hour). Further, it could only travel for a maximum of one and a half miles (2 kilometers). Today France’s TGV bullet train has the capacity to travel at 357 mile per hour (575 kilometers per hour).
And yet Americans do not ride trains, except a small corridor in the Northeast.
Why? trains are very expensive. California is still waffling on a costly "bullet train" that will serve a very small population and cost $60 billion (estimates, probably will be 2-3 times that much). What will tickets have to cost?
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If more and more people can be replaced with robots, why do we need immigration
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To program and operate the robots, and package, ship, and market the products and services robots provide.
Also. we need more working people to pay the Social Security and Medicare for seniors and the disabled.
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Because we are human, and immigrants are human, and we remember where our grandparents came from. Our society must choose rules to limit the rate at which we accept immigrants, but we do not have a privileged place in the world that lets us lock everybody out. Immigrants bring both good and bad. Native born Americans bring both good and bad.
We don't. We are already over populated especially with low skilled individuals.
1
This development exposes yet again the fundamental man-machine problem that we haven't figured out how to solve. At the start of the industrial age, manual labor was literally back breaking, and machines helped us avoid that. This was (and is) obviously a good thing -- picking cotton by hand is no picnic. At that time it was hoped that as machines freed us from more and more manual labor that humans would use the leisure time created to write poetry, sculpt, and solve quantum gravity.
Well, here we are a few centuries later and it turns out that most of us have no interest or talent in sculpting or poetry or science. Heck, we can't even do basic calculus, which is 17th century math if not earlier. Most of the advances in math and physical science since then are total gobbledygook to most of us. Good luck trying to get the average Joe explain what a Fourier transform is.
I have no idea how to solve this problem. The planet is groaning under the weight of 7 billion people and counting. There isn't enough work for at least one billion of these. We are eating our way through the earth's biota and non-living resources, we are poisoning the environment, and we are fighting wars over whose god is the mightiest. I definitely feel like I am in this audience:
https://apothegms.wordpress.com/cartoon-dinosaur-and-we-have-a-brain-the...
9
Explain the Fourier transform?
It's easily explained to the average Joe if put in the context of music, as perhaps in a discussion of aftermarket audio installed in a 2004 Honda.
1
Observe, but also marvel, that a few farmers can feed millions and a few mathematicians and physicists can design the cellphones, microwave ovens, medical diagnostic and treatment aids that we all use without needing to knowing how to transform a Fourier!
What we need from the 7 billion is not scientific knowledge, but the freedom and tolerance to let the few follow their ambitions and pursue opportunities, without interference from the gods and demagogues.
3
The solution of course is way fewer humans, not happening. Or exporting them to say Mars.
1
The irony is that the scarcity of human brick layers may accelerate the mechanization of the industry, hastening the replacement of all human brick layers.
2
Only in America would someone think of making a race out of what is, among other things, an ancient art form; one that Winston Churchill himself resorted to when the pressures of defeating the Nazis weighed too heavily upon his broad shoulders. If the idea of this Vegas competition (and accompanying article) is to draw attention to a building material that has stood the test of time like no other (those who are truly interested can still see and touch and admire the skill of Roman artisans going back thousands of years, a pictorial sampling would do the trick as well as encourage readers to spend more time in studying the built world surrounding them rather than the electronic brick in the palm of their hands they spend so much of their day gazing into in apparent dumb reverence. Congrats to the winners of this silly contest, however. Here's hoping their papers (and those of their parents) are in as perfect order as their parking lot wall.
3
I learned a lot from this article, and now I would try to make a wall which will divide kitchen and bathroom in my basement. NYT should start a tutorial class for house building.
Wood studs and sheetrock are much faster and cheaper than brick for building an interior wall.
As for sanitation and esthetics, I am glad to hear you are planning to build a wall between your bathroom and kitchen.
2
Or better aluminum studs, no wood to rot or be eaten.
2
Metal wall studs in the big-box stores are generally made of galvanized steel, not aluminum. While steel studs won't rot or be eaten by insects, they are generally harder for beginners to cut, handle and install than wood studs.
2
I just googled the company, and the third thing that comes up is an article from CNBC saying these machines are 5x faster than people.
1
Today, a robot is not able to outperform the BEST bricklayers in the country. It's not hard to imagine a time in the near future when they could outperform the average bricklayer. Of course the shortage of bricklayers could be solved by controlled immigration. Alternatively, unemployed men could put down the video game controller. I know ... silly of me to think that could happen.
1
Or by controlled education or if you want export one citizen for each immigrant.
1
The SAM costs $400,000. How much do human bricklayers cost? It would be nice to know the range of average wages for bricklayers (masons and tenders).
1
Last time I was moving bricks around they weighed about 7.5 pounds, not 3 pounds! My brother and I moved 3 pallets worth using only brick tongs, seven at a time.
"By the end, many will have moved more than 600 three-pound bricks." Are these special competition bricks? http://littlehamptonbrick.com.au/clay-bricks/brick-specifications/
In the photo, the bricks have three large holes in the center, not a feature of average bricks.
There are different kinds of bricks. These have large holes, to reduce weight. Others are slim, so they are just to face buildings with a decorative surface -- not structural.
It depends on the purpose of the bricklaying -- brick veneer, or construction brick -- is it for a sunny or cold climate, etc.
1
Love to see skilled human professional doing that vocation which they do best.
4
Yep, the same skilled vocation that is INSTANTLY undercut, wage wise and safety wise, by illegal immigration. Brick laying and masonry is a prime example. They aren't writing that article mind you.
And then, when the bricklayer complains, he or she is belittled by ivory tower types in these comments as "You're doing hard work no U.S. citizen wants in their right mind anyway. Let the immigrants take it all for half your wage. Never mind your dirty little 'vocation'. Get a clean 'real' type job that everyone 'really' wants". These comments constantly appear in immigration debates.
This gets me very irritated.
1
"Constantly"!!!
(Yet I've yet to see one printed in this comment section.)
1
Unfortunately, 45 won't be reading this wonderful article which would only further infuriate him: two Hispanics winning by being perfect at their job. Of course those of us in the border states knew that considering 90% of new home construction is by Hispanics...
2
How foolish, they are citizens, so nothing else matters to the president. He does read the NYT every day I understand.
1
Ha, ha, ha...
He reads!!!???
Thanks, needed the chuckle.
1
Craftman-ship, man. Show me a robot that loves his/her work. Craftman-ship, man.
3
Now let's see it tool the joints. Robots trying to replace people, people trying to replace robots. What a vicious circle.
1
Brilliant. The wall is only as straight and level as the concrete apron the robot rides on is. Who pours that? Let's see the same competition up on a scaffold. Maybe drones for above grade work. Everybody down below better be prepared to duck when all those bricks start flying.
3
[[What SAM does do is work without getting thirsty, sick or tired.]]
..or drunk.
I have two friends who are tradesmen and they both say they cannot get laborers to show up reliably and sober.
3
And SAM can probably work in the hottest of weather in the deep southwest or in the pouring rain in other parts of the country, both climate factors of which would be inhospitable to the human mason.
Ugh! My father is spinning in his grave, a first generation Italian bricklayer who learned the trade from his Ellis Island immigrant father. Their buildings are still standing in many parts of Long Island and surrounding areas ( a synagogue and VFW Post come immediately to mind.)
3
We need to re-emphasize that working with one's hands is an honorable and good way to make a living. My dad was a machinist. He was able to support a family with that trade. He had most of a college degree, but WWII, marriage, kids, and illness prevented him from finishing the degree. Nevertheless, he worked for 50 years with his hands. There is simply nothing wrong with becoming a welder, cosmetologist, brick mason, carpenter, veterinary assistant or any of dozens of other trades.
The current focus of K12 education is on college prep––not because that's best for kids, but because that's what is mandated by legislatures and school boards ("college and career-ready" but the only emphasis is on college ready). The fact that all school teachers are college-educated (including myself) means that they have a bias toward college education. When only 20-25% of all jobs require a college degree, this is disingenuous.
Kudos to these craftsmen/craftswomen.
5
Where are the modern Luddites who will selflessly smash the machines and save all humanity from progress?
2
This reminds me of the old Disney cartoon about Paul Bunyan from about the early 60's. Paul and Babe the Blue Ox against the skinny guy with a chain saw. Who won? There will always be room for a craftsman and there are fewer and fewer of them, but the production work is the target and manpower will not stand a chance against it. For every one person entering the skilled construction trades approx. 5 are retiring out of it. There is opportunity working with your hands. Just pick the right craft!
2
The real race is with 3-D "printing" of houses IMHO. It would be simple to have a brick-like result with either two concrete feeds or using dyes. These machines can "read" blueprints, too. Still, it takes people to keep a 3-D machine happy!
1
Yes this will happen. However, the smartest bricklayers will buy these machines and have their own company of robots! (I pray)
1
I've erected brick walls made in factories on panels. The brick is 1/4'' thick and is laid on frames and metal studs. When set they look just like a brick wall. And yes they go up a whole lot quicker and a lot less mess.
The world has been crying about automation since the invention of the wheel.
Through history from the wheel, to the industrial revolution to today's computers, old jobs became obsolete and new jobs were created.
The issue is if an old job is still needed but farmed out to slave labor countries like China, India, Mexico etc.
Prime examples of this is auto jobs to Mexico. You still. need people to make cars despite all the automation.
2
Tour the Tesla factory in Fremont, CA.
1
Thank you for your reply Leonardo. During the period from 1970 to 1990 the large corporation I worked for brought in equipment that modernized and automated my company by 100 yrs.
We still have as many employees as before. They are just doing new jobs.
It is the nature of humans to over hype new technology like with the Tesla factory. The greatest example of it was when they built titanic. It was supposed to be the greatest thing since sliced bread and you saw what happened.
Yes automation can cut down old jobs in a profession or even in rare cases completely eliminate it but new jobs will always be created.
It has happened since the invention of the wheel.
1
My only point, Paul, is that they have a remarkable number of robots doing all sorts of tasks in this factory and it is very much state of the art. I agree that new jobs will always be created; however the skill set required may not be the same and will require retraining in order to keep workers employable.
2
There is noting equal to the professionalism of the brick layer who’s eye is more precise than a robot. In the video the brick on the left side is off. Even I caught it and that would never be acceptable to a professional. That would never happen with the eye of the human. Then there is the excess mortar that would require a person removing it. I’d rather have a professional human building the wall than a robotic machine. Maybe one day but obviously not today,
2
Bricklaying is a fascinating skill. Looking at the photo of the robot and having read the article, I don't think bricklayers are in trouble just yet. The robot looks very large and heavy: I doubt you could put it on a scaffold to do work above one story. And I don't think a contractor would be too interested in a robot that could only work on the ground level. Still, it might become smaller in the future.
1
This story reminds me of the machines that replaced humans in factory automobile assembly not too long ago. Saved automakers a ton of money.
Note that high end autos, like a Rolls-Royce, Bentley, or Bugatti are still hand assembled.
Cost aside, would you rather drive a Bentley Flying Spur or a Ford Focus?
Sure I would like to drive a Bentley for fun. But to own, a Ford Focus by a mile.
I wouldn't have to worry about anyone stealing it, could park anywhere and not worry. Yearly maintenance can be done at any mechanic. A scratch on the car would get a "hmmm" by me and i would move on with out a thought.
Bricklaying is a declining craft. Not only can machines lay bricks, but houses in China and Europe have already been built using 3-D printing of cement or other compounds rather than bricks; see for yourself on-line (search "3D printing building videos").
These 3-D printing/building efforts are still fairly rudimentary and limited, and are not applicable in all construction situations, but clearly represent the wave of the future. Also, 3-D printing of pre-fabricated structural elements will increasingly be used where it is not feasible to place large fabricating machines on crowded (urban) sites.
It is not a stretch to predict that one day in the not-too-distant future a few remaining bricklayers will demonstrate their trade at living history sites like Colonial Williamsburg and Old Sturbridge Village, along with the candle-makers, spinners and blacksmiths.
Robots will replace many manual jobs, however you have to take into account the programming of the robot. In a very controlled environment like the one mentioned in this article that may be possible but in real life bricks are laid in very complex environments. In a human that "programming" is verbal and can be done in a brief conversation. Not so with a robot. First the complex environment would have to be programmed into the robot by a human and most likely a well paid programmer and then and only then will the robot be able to do the job. As an engineer and a programmer I think the brick layers are safe for at least a couple or more decades.
5
More than a century ago, in his book Principles of Scientific Management, the efficiency expert Frederick Winslow Taylor noted that the process of bricklaying could be made more productive with fewer movements. He used motion studies to show that bricklayers wasted time because they varied in how they handled and set the bricks. He recommended new requirements to reduce the motions from 18 to four. We've always been pursuing that robotic ideal, I guess.
4
In practice, Software Development is not at all efficient. In my opinion AI still relies on Human Experience. Here's a test, if the answer to "Would Monalisa still be a masterpiece if we know it was painted by a Photoshop artist?" is yes, then AI is a threat to humans.
The new home my wife and I are having built is nearing completion...finally. The mason who laid the brick veneer composing the lower half of the walls, and the heavy and irregularly shaped "chop" stone (roughly, very roughly, rectangular blocks of sandstone weighing from a pound or so to twenty pounds and more) echoed the words of this article. Or, more accurately, this article echoes his words.
He made the work seem almost effortless, even when working from a scaffold nearly 20' in the air, as he finished the gable above the garage with the chop stone. The garage facade is nothing if not a work of art. The stone's color variations, as well the wildly different widths, lengths and thicknesses, from piece to piece demand a keen eye for the asthetics of design and visual impact, all done on the fly, outdoors, in the middle of winter here in north Texas.
He has jobs waiting for him, he told me, enough for months, with two crews working...if he had two crews. His consisted of another mason and his co-worker's son as their tender. While they worked on the garage a car pulled into the driveway and the young lady driving asked to talk to the mason, and all but begged him to take a set of the drawings for her new home and give her an estimate. He said he would be happy to provide an estimate, though it might be several months before he could do the work.
There are some things robots will not be able to handle for generations to come. Hopefully, never.
23
Any repetitive manual physical task for humans can become transcendental if we allow them to. Poor robots probably only feel deeper emptiness inside when asked to do the same. I wept for Rolair as I read this.
Not an expert, but it seems to me that this is an exceptionally tricky task for robots to master. If everything is straightforward and the geometry is simple, a robot will do fine. But if there are any complications or unexpected issues (aren't there always?), judgement and experience are required. And if repairs are needed...
2
Don't get too complacent. There isn't anything that requires manual dexterity that a robot can't be trained to do, and do it better, quicker and far more cheaper than a human.
Robots don't need lunch, coffee, bathroom or cigarette breaks. Robots don't have a union... yet.
When the need arises to mechanize bricklaying, and it will, you can bet whatever, that it will be accomplished efficiently. Just as it has been in nearly every other manufacturing industry. This is the sad truth.
Our economy and society needs to prepare for the day when most manual labor will be done by machines. It can be to our benefit if we let it.
3
A few years ago in Ottawa, KS, we replaced an old brick courtyard at the entrance to our house with a new brick courtyard. It was large, and there were complex slopes for drainage, and there were semicircular areas. The stone mason doing the work was a real "professional" in the finest meaning of the word "professional." Even in the semicircular areas he cut the brick to maintain the constant distance between bricks. If you want that quality and that pride in the work, then it will be some time in the future before a robot is ready. There are people in the trades who are real artists with immense pride and capability. When guests came into our house, the brick courtyard was a real showpiece.
14
I once got detention in high school because I couldn’t stop watching the bricklayer in the courtyard, instead of the teacher at the board. It is a mesmerizing skill. There will always be an irreplaceable quality to things created by knowing human hands.
20
I always enjoy NYT articles that have lots of photos and GIFs, it really adds to the stories. This was a very interesting article but I do wish it took the story a bit further--how long can expert brick masons work at the pace they did for the competition? How many bricks does an average brick mason lay out in an 8 hour day? How many bricks would a SAM lay out in a 24 hour day since they don't need rest?
The problem, ultimately, with most jobs that may lose out to AI is that machines can work 24 hours a day and doesn't require benefits or vacation days, etc. They do require maintenance and upkeep but as costs for machines go down, from a pure economic perspective, they often make more sense than humans. I think humans are part of the problem as well--we keep wanting things to stay at the same cost, or better yet, less cost. We are what's driving ourselves out of work. Things are always going to keep increasing in cost, if they don't, that just means people are losing their jobs to machines or jobs are moving to lower-waged laborers abroad.
6
As this person mentioned, I to enjoy these kind of articles. Could we see more in the future sort of like the Dirty Jobs TV show?
1
It would have been better to have extended the piece to show bricklayers constructing a real wall that was artfully done. The level of competency and beauty is astounding sometimes.
3
With the decline of trades in all forms in the work, being replaced by robots, in a few hundred years we will look back and see that we have lost a body of knowledge that will rival the burning of the Library of Alexandria in the ancient world.
I know that mountains of information between the 1980 and early 2000's were dumped into landfills with the knowledge of Industrial America as those companies got bought and sold.
The same thing is going to happen with the Tradesman Knowledge. Sure, you will get a machine to lay bricks. But you will only get a brick job that it has been programmed to do. Something different or odd will not be done and the knowledge of how to do the different or odd will be lost with the collapse of the Trades.
I just had some "recreation" brick work done and the man who did it was a true craftsman at his trade. He said that nobody is working beside him to learn the ART part of the trade.
Sad. I know people looking for Machinists, Welders, even a blacksmith. As they retire and die, there is nobody coming up behind them.
Look at the story you did some months ago about the woman that made the bearings and the job went out of the US and how her replacement was making bearing inferior to hers.
We are truly seeing a race to the bottom in all fields.
27
We will all be the poorer since our built environment will be the lowest common denominator of what can be easily and cheaply built by robots, not the breathtaking work of tradesmen like the man who worked for you, or the stonemasons who worked for H.H. Richardson in Boston.
And a race to the bottle, as well....
It would have been helpful to include a film clip of the robot bricklayer in action; many are available on-line (search "robot bricklayer").
I was interested to see that in 1 hour the live masons could lay about 600 bricks, which would normally be a day's work. Perhaps the reason bricklaying productivity hasn't increased much in the last 2 decades is that masons consciously work at 1/8 or 1/6 of maximum speed to maintain a desired level of daily income for a certain level of effort.
Studies have shown that factory workers who are paid for each item produced will make more units per hour, day or week; perhaps if masons were paid for each brick laid their productivity would go up. (I know, masons would hate this.)
This article shows that masons are capable of laying many more bricks per hour or day than is the norm. However, it is a human tendency to try to get by with as little effort as possible. Long ago I had a summer job in a huge Navy warehouse holding a million electronic and mechanical items whose expiration date had passed. My task was to locate expired items and take them to a disposal area. I could easily handle about two dozen items per hour, but was called a rate-buster by the regular workers, who consciously slowed down their own work to removal of 10-12 items per hour. Robots have already partially replaced humans in large warehouses (Amazon, FedEx); masons should be alarmed by their robotic competition, which is still only in its early stages of development.
2
Many workers, in all professions, go at a slower pace than what they're able to and it's not because they're lazy or want to put in as little effort as possible--it's because there are trade-offs at going maximum speed, often at one's health. People who do manual labor may not see how their bodies are wearing down after a year or even after 10 years (although a lot would I think) but most likely, they will face some serious health consequences down the line. Ideally, companies should value the people who work for them and would not want them to compromise their health just for some extra gains.
16
We could just work people to death too. Imagine the productive gains that would achieve.
3
“Masons consciously work at 1/8 or 1/6 of maximum speed to maintain a desired level of daily income.....”
Complete rubbish. There is the fact that one has to ‘sell’ one’s work, and these speed merchants couldn’t ‘sell’ this work anywhere outside of horribly built subdivisions. Your comment reminds me of the old joke about the big bull and the baby bull looking down at the cows.
Self employed masons don’t produce much more than the guys you’re bashing, and often less. In almost every facet of life, there is some kind of trade off between speed and quality, safety and efficiency ....this contest just exhibits the fastest, like watching Usain Bolt run. You show me someone who moves at this speed all the time, and I’ll show you a guy who, while certainly employed, is in no danger of recreating the Taj Mahal.
1
Robots may be more likely to make inroads into professions that require an extensive database, like the medical profession. These days doctors have become robotic in their services: record symptoms, get lab results, prescribe medication. They don’t have time to think through a complex case, and they can’t quickly access all of the pertinent medical knowledge. A robot could do these things in a matter of seconds.
17
I live in a part of the country where the old brick buildings are a huge part of what makes the appearance of our towns gracious and appealing. The story was striking in showing prize-winning masons only from parts of the country with more forgiving climates than ours, however, and I can't help noticing that new buildings in Pennsylvania are not usually made of brick. I suppose it's partly because we have miserable conditions for working outdoors for much of the year, partly that a good wage for masons may be less available in our Pennsylvania cities. I really have no idea, but I have indeed wondered sometimes, as I have looked at the fronts of our houses, and I thank you for an appealing article.
4
I think it's mostly economics. I worked for the Planning and Zoning Department in the City of Alexandria, VA. A manager there, who lived in Philly, PA, said that the reason for so much construction in some places rather than others is based on the return on investment. He said the cost of construction to build, say, a neighborhood in Philadelphia costs about the same as building one in the Washington metro area, the difference is that developers get more out of it in the DMV due to the market demand. Just a point to entertain.
1
Long story short masonry is largely out of fashion in dense urban areas--even residential coastal areas are mimicking the modern building method and building large boxes and shirking traditional architecture in favor of ugly "modern" houses.
Part of the equation is that mortar can't set below 40 degrees due to frost action. A short history of the Chicago-Detroit corridor: (although I'm no architect) the 30's and 40's the Albert Kahn industrial building method was developed for open expanse and large industrial complexes in rural areas (short and wide), at the same time structural steel was developed for tight metro areas (tall and narrow). Both replaced masonry construction as a primary building method because of height constraints, the weight of masonry was a constraint on building height. Structural steel largely won out of modern engineering methods and a more open interior design.
Thank you to both who responded to my comment. I also agree with the commenters who said they would like to see more articles like this one: useful information about a part of our economy and way of life that many readers have little access to but are interested in. Excellent photographic/video coverage. Helps us see better the world around us.
THE CURRENT Bricklaying robots are only the first iteration. With modifications and further innovation, they will be able to perform bricklaying at a greater speed with more accuracy than humans. Hence, the future need for workers will not be to do the actual bricklaying, but software engineer designers and IT onsite managers. As with industrial robots in auto building plans, for example. The first industrial robots were invented by Robert Devol in 1954. And the rest is history. There is a series broadcast on TV called, How It's Made, filmed in French, from Canada that gives the general public great access to the details of how industrial robots are used in a wide variety of settings. True, with bricks, the assembly line will have to be movable and be capable of working on location in a wide range of settings. But it will happen. In PA, there was already an experimental run of using robots to fill potholes, that successfully increased productivity, reduced costs and increased the longevity of pothole repairs.
5
I learned to lay bricks and block while attending SUNY,Alfred State College in 1970-72, studying Architectural Design. It's a skill I enjoyed and have used several times. Thank you SUNY at Alfred!
4
We'll talk when that robot learns to set level and plumb, I surely won't live to see it setting reinforced bond beams with 10" block and no. 5 bar.
I surely can't see it working anything other than a knee wall. Maybe those nightmare production homes in far flung fields with no windows? Just increase the setbacks.
7
Hard to envision the robot and connecting hardware on a jobsite. Now, building walls in a factory and shipping to a site is another thing.
9
Bricklayers only work on small scale jobs . Any large job in the Boston area builders are using pre-form, pre-cast sections.Better quality control,and less concern about weather holding a job up.
13
Bricklaying is a nostalgic skill more suited to exhibition and competition than to efficient and economical construction. There are far better ways to build a wall!
1
I'm a retired master carpenter, former contractor, proficient in electrical and plumbing, but could never get a handle on masonry, it's an art unto itself. My specialty was custom millwork, "practice limited" to custom stairs and rails for the last 10 years of my career, and consider myself a fairy smart guy. I still get fascinated watching these guys ( and gals). I find it ironic and rather funny that while robots can't do this job very well, they seem to do just fine in the operating room. I wonder how many young folks, receiving a different kind of mortarboard this june, will walk into jobs that can pay $25.00/hr. or more?
Years ago (many of them) I remember watching an old Italian gentleman laying concrete blocks in lower manhattan, listening to Mozart on a small portable radio. He drew a crowd, it was like watching a dance. No motion was wasted, and he worked in time with the music, occasionally waving his trowel like a batton at a particularly poignant moment. He had finished a row exactly as a movement ended, swooped in a low bow and we all applauded. Now I'm sure there's at least 2 jobs the robots will never master.
I do, however, reserve equal admiration for the advancements in automation I've witnessed. I'm a fairly decent welder but could never match a machine in a production setting. Watch a video of the automation in a truck factory or an Amazon warehouse, it will both fascinate you and send a chill down your spine. Progress always cuts both ways.
53
In the area of town that we live in there are many people that work in construction. A lot of the young men in HS here would go on to work with their Dads in whatever subcontracting business they had, like AC or roofer, whatever. Our HS has a magnate in part of it that is all construction, so the kids can learn about it and go on to help their families. It's quite popular. I think their project this year was to make little houses for a homeless project here.
4
Masonry, and most of the construction trades (like the millworking you speak of) are part labor part art. They are skills that take time to master and I wish more kids were given the chance to learn them instead of being pushed into this idea that 4-year colleges is the only way up. I know This Old House, Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs and other groups are trying to shine light on the current and upcoming shortage of skilled tradespeople and to set up apprentice programs to keep these vital skills alive. These professions should be given the respect they deserve!
1
I work with technology including predictive and decision support. All too often we apply too much hype and optimism to the capabilities of our technology. When will we learn?
Ideally, we should be pursuing technology that doesn't replace people, but augments them, assists them... Let the human do what humans do best while offloading the appropriate tasks to machines.
6
Expecting a robot to build by laying bricks is like expecting a 3D printer to fashion objects by whittling. The goal of automation is not to imitate humans, even though it sometimes looks that way. The goal of automation is to get the job done faster and cheaper. And the solution may look very different.
When robots take over construction, they will not be laying bricks. They will use a method designed for their strengths.
32
I think that this is the real point, machines are not people. It should be possible for a machine to read detailed design documents prepared for them and to set up survey stations so a machines can locate bricks precisely. What is missing is a bricklayer's judgement when the plan is wrong.
If it becomes important to create these machines, then it seems likely that the bricks and mortar will be redesigned too. In the future, I can envision bring recyclable materials to a job site, dump them into a hopper to be made into "bricks" that are hot-glued together by a machine working 24/7.
1
Who wants a wall, walk or patio to look exactly like all the others on your street and in your neighborhood?
I'm sitting in a house with a custom enclosed patio floor (slate pieces), front door walk, and backside walk (also all slate pieces.) It's my parent's house, and this work dates from 1950: They had watched the front walk (slate) work across the street and hired the same craftsman (first generation Italian immigrant.) There's no sign of wear (New England winters, 3 kids, many patio BBQs.) The slate was locally sourced.
These are accoutrements everyone remarks about when they first visit here. Automated solutions won't come close.
4
The "robot" will simply be given the CADD files produced from draftsmen working with software like AutoCad or Intergraph and will "read" those.
I love watching bricklayers and other Masons at work because it involves part mathematical precision and part artistry. While the robots might be able to be precise, the human walls will still retain that element of “human-ness” that is far more delightful to behold.
2
It's just a matter of time. When advances in technology which result in robots that can produce more than their human counterpart then it's only a question of what event drives the change. Shortage of bricklayers and rising wages set the stage. Then some contractor may find that a 24 hour operation results in a winning combination with the robots and it's lights out from there.
2
Didn't John Henry have something to say about this?
And in the end, it will work out just that way. Fancy corners and arches aside, this job is just too easily automated by a high-reaching, fast moving robot to possibly remain a human job for much longer. (Remember, a ground-based robot could build an arbitrarily high wall with no need of scaffolding, staging, or coffee breaks.)
2
Legion has it that John Henry did beat the drilling machine, but the effort killed him.
I spent most of my working life operating cranes. When I began they were primitive things requiring lots of back breaking work. Now they are computerized marvels requiring far less physical labor, but generate pay levels that would have been beyond our wildest dreams back in the day.
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> Leg[end] has it that John Henry did beat the drilling
> machine, but the effort killed him.
'Zactly! He won that one battle, but it killed him. And the war was soon lost and that sort of hard-rock drilling became completely mechanized.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Henry_(folklore)
So it will go here as well.
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