Caterpillar Invests $2 Million in Robotic Bricklaying Company

Hadrian X brick laying robot via Youtube

Hadrian X brick laying robot via Youtube

Caterpillar is not resting on what made it successful in the past anymore and probably for good reason.  The equipment manufacturing giant recently bought Yard Club, a heavy construction equipment sharing company, looking to take advantage of the recently popularized sharing economy. Earlier this month, Caterpillar invested $2 million in Fastbrick Robotics, an Australian robotic technology company.

You may remember Fastbrick Robotics from a video we shared last year, showing that it can lay brick for an entire house in 2 days. The Hadrian X, Fastbrick’s flagship technology, is a robotic arm attached to a boom and a truck that can lay 1,000 bricks per hour, which 16 times more than a human mason.

The robotics company entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MAU) with Caterpillar on July 3, 2017 for $2 million, which will aid in the development of Fastbrick’s technology. According to the press release, the MAU will last for 12 months, which can be extended with mutual agreement or terminated at any time.  Caterpillar will also use this partnership to market the equipment to its existing customer base.

Here’s the aforementioned video of how the technology works:

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