Fastbrick Robotics looks to alleviate lethargic state of global construction

The construction industry may never be the same again if Fastbrick Robotics (ASX: FBR) gets its Hadrian X building robot into the field.

While its flagship Hadrian X robot is being worked on by its growing team of engineers, its corporate unit has published details of several interesting industry observations made by a third-party hired to assess the company’s future market.

The company is developing a revolutionary “construction robot” capable of building an entire single-storey house in under 2 days. Fastbrick claims its technology is the first stage of a revolution in human/machine collaborative digital construction, taking the benefits of fully automated machines onto the construction site.

To substantiate its ambitions, Fastbrick appointed EY-Parthenon as its global strategic business advisor in January 2018.

The focus of the appointment was to assist the company with analysing the global market opportunity for the Hadrian X robot and to develop an appropriate market entry strategy, according to the mechanisation-ready company.

EY-Parthenon said that a number of sources were used to prepare the analysis on the theoretical global demand for the Hadrian X, including the United Nations (UN), industry publications, and interviews with highly experienced industry contacts.

Construction industry insights

The consultancy concludes that 30 million new low-rise buildings are in the process of being built this year around the world.

Given the rate of construction made possible by the Hadrian X, “indicates that a stock of approximately 140,000 to 150,000 Hadrian X’s would be required to build all low-rise buildings globally in 2018”.

In other words, Fastbrick Robotics could single-handedly provide the mechanised means to take over construction at the thousands of construction sites around the world — as long as it manufactured around 145,000 robots.

That may seem outlandish given the early-stage nature of its commerciality, but by some accounts, the robot is no larger than a double-decker bus and the world makes millions of them each year.

EY-Parthenon says the average 100 square metre building requires approximately 11,000 standard bricks which can be time-consuming and logistically difficult to construct using manual labour-intensive means.

The added wastage of various building materials and human errors further complicates the construction process.

Fastbrick states that its Hadrian X robot presents a low-rise construction solution that has never been commercially available before and provides end users with the competitive advantage of reducing building time, cost and waste while improving safety and building accuracy.

“Most importantly, the Hadrian X provides certainty with respect to building cost, delivery time, risk and quality which is presently a major challenge in the construction sector globally,” according to Fastbrick.

First mover first served

To capitalise on its first-mover advantage, the increasing rate of technology adoption globally and the efficiencies that the Hadrian X is expected to bring to the construction industry, Fastbrick is initially targeting 2% of the addressable market for the Hadrian X over the next five years.

From the figures provided, this equates to around 3,000 Hadrian X robots.

Fatbrick says that this initial market share target is consistent with the “significant inbound interest in the Hadrian X” from parties all over the world, especially from areas with a propensity for low-rise single-storey buildings such as Australia and parts of the developing world where multiple stories are not practical or culturally desirable.

Demand-side interest in the Hadrian X continues to emanate from a diverse range of parties, including builders, developers, construction companies, governments and a range of strategic partners.

“This analysis demonstrates just how large the global market opportunity for the Hadrian X is, and that this opportunity will continue to grow over the coming decades,” said Mr Mike Pivac, CEO of Fastbrick Robotics.

“As a globally focussed industrial robotics company, Fastbrick is on an unwavering mission to accelerate the commercialisation of its unique technology. As the only company in the world building construction robots capable of doing what the Hadrian X can do, capitalising on our first mover advantage is crucial,” he added.