Global exposure, page-699

G'day to all LTHs and prospective holders. Tomorrow I am going overseas for 2 weeks - so hopefully I'll get a break from all the excitement and speculation caused by the SAT.

I would like to leave some parting thoughts, in particular to clarify what hadrian represents for the undecideds - of course this is not advice, and please DYOR. But I won't repeat what has already been said by many great posters here, nor what is on the FBR website.

Hadrian is a special purpose robot with specific capabilities.
A very important attribute it has is that every new version of hadrian can do everything the old version can, plus more. Unlike a bricklayer - each new one has to start from scratch and take a few years before they are efficient and learn the building codes.

FBR can be regarded as the first mover in this field - machines like SAM and ICON are not in the same ballpark. Consequently whilst any future competitors will be trying to sort out the basics, Hadrian will be on the continuous improvement path getting further ahead, i.e. making the moat wider.

Mr troopy in particular has been very loud saying that hadrian can NEVER do this nor do that. NEVER is a very strong word, and all the fields in engineering and science prove it wrong.
For example - the latest EV cars have about 30 sensors - cameras, lidar, etc, to monitor the environment. I don't know how many hadrian uses, but it is easy to imagine that it can have more in the future - eg to scan whether the surface is level, the exact shape and dimensions of the next block to be laid, whether vertical rebars are in place and where, etc.

Then, depending on which articulations of the laying head are available (and future versions may be upgraded with some more), the hadrian can be programmed to lay the block threading a vertical rebar through it, or nudge a block to remove lipping.

Also whilst laying a block if it detects the surface is too low or not horizontal, it can leave the block out and notify the operator of the issue, onto his ipad, with an instruction to place a packer at that spot before the hadrian returns to lay the next course, and of course also insert the missing block.

Perhaps a masonry hole saw can be added, so that it can cut inspection holes where required.

Really there are many enhancements possible. Over time these can be added, increasing the versatility of the machine, whilst the competition is barely getting started.

The ability to place a block accurately every few seconds up to 32 metres away is astounding. If there are some walls that hadrian can't do - eg face bricks (at the moment), or walls behind some obstruction, hadrian can easily place the bricks in stacks in the best spot for traditional bricklayers to use - it can do this in a few minutes as an extra to save a labourer walking back and forwards carrying bricks.

Some people, especially the dumb media, often bring up the issue that robots take away jobs. Although that is true, one needs to consider that it will take decades, and the current generation of bricklayers are not at risk of losing any job. On the contrary, in the future they will be doing the more artistic/artisanal jobs, ie things of beauty where people appreciate "hand made". Also there are always less and less young people wanting to do this kind of work anyway.

Robots are the way of the future. It is the only way to get consistency and speed, and eliminate errors. A friend of mine had to have a serious operation on his abdomen - he had two choices : the traditional way, where the surgeon cuts him up across his whole abdomen, and 3 weeks stay in hospital, or key hole surgery via robot with 3 little holes and just an overnight stay. He chose the robot.

Cheers all - I'll try to keep track about what is going on, but hopefully I can put it all out of my mind and enjoy the holiday, even though today was a bit disappointing