New year, new power ranking! Check out the rubric below, it is imperfect but it’s my attempt at ranking the various competitors in the construction automation world. I only include companies that contribute to the building process, no scanners, layout bots, or extraneous software. Only hardware, robotics, and companies who truly contribute to building the final structure.

My name is Jarett Gross and my journey around the world visiting construction automation companies has reached over a billion people online. This year Automate Construction will begin to offer in person courses on operating construction automation equipment. If you would like to sign up for the first course on how to 3D concrete, reach out to me on the contact page and I will reserve one of the limited spots. Only 6 remain of 16 total available spots and we recommend teams of 3-4. We will print with a pro team and each person from your group will operate a different role to print a wall.

For transparency I have invested in some of the companies through publicly available crowdfinding and others have sponsored videos in the past but this is an unbiased ranking attempt, not all companies I’ve invested in or taken sponsorships from have been listed.

If you disagree with my ranking reach out and I will explain how I did it and why your company scored the way it did relative to other companies near your score.

I do not know everything and I know this list isn’t perfect. One founder last year complained about their financing score because he claims to be personally very wealthy but without clear public evidence his wealth has been invested into his construction automation startup rather than his other endeavors, his personal wealth is not a factor in their financing score.

I do my best to only rank companies based on publicly available information.

With all that out of the way here is the Automate Construction Ranking 2026! Congratulations to the top 50 companies, even the bottom of the list beat out over 400 other firms in the space so it’s a hard club to get in and everyone listed should be proud!

In February we are running the first hands on 3DCP training in Florida. Email me for more details automateconstruction.com/contact

Company Name	Power Ranking Score
Horizon Legacy	12
Evocons	13
Instatiq	13
Rudenko	13
M3DSA	13
Tvasta	14
Macro 3D	14
MiCob	15
Cosmos 3D	15
Heidelberg	15
Cobod	15
Print3DTechnologies	15
UTU	15
Lumina *	15
Madco3D	16
Apis Cor	16
Xhab	17
Contour 3D	17
Vertico	17
Cybe	17
Muddy Robots	17
TRS Tech	17
Wasp 3D	18
Innotech 3D	18
CES Innovfab	18
PERI	18
KKrane	19
Coral	19
Printed Farms	19
Emergent 3D	19
Constructions 3D	19
Botbuilt	19
RIC	20
SQ4D	20
M-Tech	20
Pikus 3D	20
Boxabl	21
Moneumental	21
MAI	22
Advanced Construction Robotics	22
Sika	22
Fastbrick Robotics	23
Built Robotics	23
Alquist 3D	24
Oshkosh	24
3D Plotter	24
AutoVol	24
Caterpillar	25
Hive	25
Icon	27

As always, I hope everyone is offended 🙂

Complaints will be met with a private review of your rubric scoring.

Check out the ranking from previous years!

2024 Ranking

Automate Construction Power Ranking 2024

2025 Ranking

Automate Construction Power Ranking 2025

POWER RANKING RUBRIC

Activity

How busy is the company or tech working directly on construction automation projects?

1. No current projects
2. Small activity
3. Daily building
4. Notably high activity 
5. Scaled multi team 24 hr activity (None yet achieved)

Funding

How much access to capital does the company have

1. Bootstrapped
2. Pre Seed
3. Seed
4. 10M+
5. 100M+

Commercialization

Is the company doing projects, selling systems, and operating like a typical contractor

1. No commercial revenue
2. Small or subsidized commercial revenue
3. At least some work is sold with the expectation of profit
4. Regularly doing projects with expectation of profit
5. Gold rush (None yet achieved)

Code Compliance

Is the product sold following typical codes and regulations permissible everywhere?

1. No code is followed in any projects or project ending non compliance
2. Light local restrictions allow activity
3. Permitted projects in typical regions
4. Permitted projects in extra challenging regions
5. Identical to traditional methods in ease of permitting

Innovation

Is the company doing new things all the time?

1. No notable improvements over last year
2. Small progress
3. Clearly innovating
4. Wildly unique
5. Vertically integrated innovation

Reliability

Does the company follow through on promised projects, predictions, and products? 

1. Multiple cases of no follow through
2. Typical startup challenges
3. Consistently delivers
4. Exceptional delivery & delivery rate
5. Top tier reliability (None yet achieved)

Publicity

Do people know the company exists?

1. Why are you so secret? Get the word out!
2. Minor publicity
3. Substantial publicity
4. Above average media exposure
5. Enormous PR 

Construction

Do they build stuff and operate like a normal construction company or construction equipment provider?

1. Operating like early startup
2. Some construction 
3. Contractor or commercial equipment provider
4. Experienced GC
5. Major construction player

Momentum

Are they growing and expanding or are their achievements getting old?

1. Activity is stale or shrinking
2. Advancing slowly
3. Rapidly scaling

Disclaimer: Not investment advice, I have participated in public crowd funding with companies listed here as an investor and also taken sponsorships from companies listed. The sponsorship is flat rate and not every company that sponsored a video makes the list. It is my goal to be an unbiased judge.

Another year, another World of Concrete. I am still disappointed by the pricing structure of the show, charging per pound (roughly $1/ pound I hear) of material brought in makes it very expensive to bring a printer plus a few tons of concrete to print at the show. One group with a small printer said their cost to print at the show would have been $60,000. The booths featuring live printing are always some of the biggest attention grabbers. Only 2 groups were printing this year, RIC and Quikrete. Quikrete sponsors the Bricklayer 500 event every year where they bring in many tons of bricks for masons to compete building small wall segments and the winner gets a new truck. It’s possible this large sponsorship gives them a lower cost per pound on freight brought into the show.

I think it would be a good investment for WOC to find a way to subsidize the cost per pound for companies doing impressive demonstrations like live printing concrete.

The good news is there were far more 3DCP companies attending the show and I did my best to get a picture of each one so that you can get the best parts of the show without having to show up yourself.

Geopolymer international, the Vegas locals were my first stop at the show. They are looking forward to an active 2026, splitting their efforts into a dedicated geopolymer materials company and a separate 3dcp company that will work with cementitious mortars as well.

Spacer Robotics was the next booth to catch my eye at the show, they just started this year but that little bot on the floor will be able to tie rebar on site. Looking forward to seeing that in action!

Mapei finally brought printed concrete to the show again, and with it came Peter Cooperman who is very happy to be contributing to the 3DCP industry again.

Caught up with Vertico next, by now you may have noticed the order is time sequential as I try to do with all my content. Here, Volker is showing off their 2k print head. These guys are well known for printing some of the most beautiful parametric designs.

KKrane was one of the most recent site visits of Automate Construction, we got a couple million views on the 40 ft tower, 2 homes, and new HQ all printed by Zach. We also got to see the printer that he built them all with in action. Check it out for yourself!

Here is the Marco 3D team, a few legends from NJ who used a 3D Potter Scara printer to print the biggest single family residential project in America and possibly the world. The owner/GC quoted the project at 3000 sqft for the main house, 1800 sqft garage with 2nd story, 1800 sqft pool house. I got to film the last exterior layers of this project, video coming soon! I will link it here when it’s done in a month or so.

Here we have 2/3 of the Xtreme Habitats Giants, Jeff on the left was the GC for the Alaska Project in Nome that I got to visit. These days short form content pulls in millions of views on every visit I do but this one in particular was the best performing long form youtube video of the year for the Automate Construction channel. I guess people love to see a challenge and printing in Alaska is no easy feat. Their transparency in sharing certain struggles definitely contributed to the success of this video.

Zi from RIC was looking like John Wick, we always appreciate a group that goes the extra mile of printing at the show. In engineering everything always seems to fall apart during the demo like the famous Elon Musk cannonball through the window of the Cybertruck moment. Luckily for RIC catastrophe was avoided but an extremely uneven ‘print surface’ (the parking lot) with 3 inches rise in some places led to a tricky first layer. The pros know printers properly calibrated will eventually self correct as they did here, showing off nice clean parallel layers. Here’s a video of me and Zi putting a printed wall through trial by fire in the desert after last years WOC, soon we are planning to increase the firepower, stay tuned.

Shahaf is a printing company from Israel who developed their own printer developing military style bunkers with printed concrete.

Noah from Sika was hosting an educational event for 3DCP at the show assembling a diverse group of industry experts to share industry insights. There were a couple companies that commandeered the opportunity for self promotion but the educational segment by Sika in the first 45 minutes was very high quality.

MAI is one of the most successful mixer pump brands for 3DCP they apparently sold 60-70 mixer pump systems to the 3DCP industry in 2025.

Alquist 3D was showing off their new printer and excitement for more Walmart projects coming soon. Check out the last one I got to visit!

Vitruvian was showing off some work they did with a Constructions 3D printer in Ohio, I believe these are the first permitted homes successfully printed on a Constructions 3D system in the United States hopefully many more to come.

Kaneshka is the CEO/Architect/Founder of Konstra, a printer manufacturer with some outside the box designs printing this year in California.

Their client K4K bought a printer and will be bringing Kaneshkas designs to life in California, they gave a presentation at the show and I thought I got a picture but I can’t seem to find it, I had intended to include it here.

Constructions 3D was at the show, their Citadel project in France is one of the most ambitious in the industry and now that their printer has done permitted homes in America we should be seeing them more and more.

Twente Additive Manufacturing was at the show with a developer working on a big project that will hopefully implement a tech we saw at their HQ in my video years ago.

I am not the biggest fan of regulations or regulatory organizations but it was very reassuring to meet Shawn Platt, one of the experts on the Sika panel from NIST. My impression of NIST was that they were the old wise men in the high castle far removed from the blue collar work happening on the ground but Shawn is an exception having experience in a large variety of trades (still wise too).

The Printera team was at the show too, they will be moving to a new facility soon. Check out my video with them from earlier in the year.

Quikrete was one the only booths printing at the show. They must have a great dust mitigation system to be printing at the show like that!

Coral 3D had a booth at the show this year (previously known as ice but changed to a friendlier name). They even brought a printer that was dancing around a bit but no actual printing. They do have some incredible projects over in Europe and hopefully some in America coming soon.

Avenco 3D was showing off some very nice printed elements at the show.

I met Robotic Construction Technologies for the first time, they don’t do much media stuff but I think in a year or two they will be ready for a big public feature on Automate Construction (no rush, whenever you’re ready).

Ventures Equipment has a new mixer pump they were showing off at the show.

Gardon Construction was represented at the show, currently in an R&D phase for printing in the elements.

Putzmeister featured Instatiq with a little video demo table at their massive booth of like 20+ giant pump trucks. Just bring the Instatiq next time you already brought 20 others the same size.

And that’s the show! I got to meet a ton of other people too but kept this list to only those who are printing. I do think it was the biggest year for 3DCP attendees even though the number of companies printing was disappointing.

There are some awesome new project coming soon this year and I’m also debuting an in person 3DCP training opportunity in collaboration with a few of your favorite 3DCP companies. The first one will be hosted by 3D Potter in Florida on February 25th and 26th. You will get hands on printing experience and expert lectures around topics like materials, permitting, and 3D modeling. Seats are extremely limited, email me via Jarett@3dprinted.construction to reserve a seat.

Welcome to the second annual Automate Construction Power Ranking. The one time of year I compare startups against each other using a carefully crafted & transparent rubric in an imperfect attempt to measure their power in the construction automation industry.

This is not a ranking of investment quality or a predictor of success. Certainly not investment advice.

My name is Jarett Gross, 5 years ago I started filming the very first permitted 3D printed buildings and I haven’t stopped since.

This does not make me an expert, I’m just a guy with internet access reaching 100M+ people per year.

2025 was the first year I started doing sponsored videos on my channel. As a journalist I would be skeptical of a ranking which includes companies with sponsorships, understandable. To ease your concern I’d like to share with you that not every company which sponsored a video of mine made the top 50 list. Only 2 companies who sponsored videos made the top 20.

To raise your concern, much has occurred since this list was finalized almost a year ago and if I were to redo it today based on my current knowledge it would be different. I considered not posting but this is a valid reflection of my opinions at the time it was written. I will post an updated list some time for 2026, I am already working on the 2026 ranking process.

I do my best to remain unbiased, my biggest weakness is awareness bias… of 400+ construction automation companies the information available to me is only a fraction of the picture.

The transparent rubric at the bottom may be challenged at any time by any construction automation company on or off this list. I will tell you your ranking offline and although the specific grading breakdown of each competitor is not public, I will give you examples of other companies who scored higher or lower in the categories you disagree with me on so that you can understand my logic & good faith attempt at neutral bias. Please note the rubric changed from 2024 to 2025, I added a ‘Momentum’ category to grade companies based on their growth trajectory from last year. Due to the lag in release, there are a couple offensive omissions who would have been included if I ranked them today and a couple laughable inclusions of companies that are no longer operating at all who will certainly not make next years list.

Remember, this is not a list of my favorite companies just the results of a rubric I came up with in an attempt at measuring the immeasurable. Congratulations to the 50 companies ranked out of hundreds. It’s only getting more competitive every year!

Company Name	Power Ranking Score
MiCob Printer Manufacturer from India with military projects	16
Cosmos 3D Printer Manufacturer & Traditional GC on large projects	16
Rudenko Printer Manufacturer, 3DCP OG	16
RIC Printer Manufacturer from China	17
New Standard Homes Printing team in Texas	17
M3DUSA Printer Manufacturer from Germany	17
Printera Print Operator in FL	17
Alquist 3D Print Operator behind Walmarts & Other buildings	18
Tvasta Printer Manufacturer from India	18
Contour 3D Printer Manufacturer from Australia	18
Print4d Printer Manufacturer in Prague	18
ICE 3DCP Printer Manufacturer from Czech Replublic	18
Heidelberg German Materials Company	18
Raise Robotics Robotic Arms on construction sites	19
Vertico Printer Manufacturer from The Netherlands	19
Figure Humanoid Robot Manufacturer	19
Wasp 3D Printer Manufacturer from Italy	19
XTreee Printer Manufacturer from France	19
3D Potter Budget Printer Manufacturer from Florida	19
Cybe Printer Manufacturer from The Netherlands	19
Cobod Printer Manufacturer from Denmark	19
Muddy Robots Adobe Print Operator	19
Print3DTechnologies Printer Manufacturer in Texas	19
Madco 3D Print Operator in New Hampshire	19
Gaudi Printer Manufacturer from China	19
Innotech 3D Printer Manufacturer from Oman	19
Printstone 3D Printer Manufacturer from Dubai	19
TRS Tech Printer Manufacturer from Iran	19
SmartBuild Printer Manufacturer from Russia	19
Sq4D Printer Manufacturer from NY	20
MAI Mixer Pump Manufacturer	20
Macro 3D Printer Manufacturer from Australia	20
UTU Printer Manufacturer from Ukraine	20
FIBO Batch Plant Manufacturer	21
M-Tech Mixer Pump Manufacturer	21
Apis Cor Printer Manufacturer	21
LT Construction Print Operator from India	21
Printed Farms Print Operator from FL	22
Neri Oxman Bioprinting	22
Emergent 3D Print Operator in CA	22
Pikus 3d Printer Manufacturer/operator in Utah	22
Constructions 3D Printer Manufacturer in France	23
PERI 3D Print operator	23
Hive Print operator	24
Botbuilt Robotic prefab framework	24
Sika Materials company	24
Icon Printer Manufacturer/ Operator in TX	25
Boxabl Prefab residential unit production	25
AutoVol Prefab commercial unit production	26
Fastbrick Robotics Bricklaying robot	28

I hope everyone is offended, even Fastbrick Robotics. They have not maintained pace through mid 2025 though perhaps they are working on advancements quietly behind the scenes.

Complaints will be met with a private review of your rubric scoring.

Check out the ranking from last year!

2024 Ranking (https://automateconstruction.com/2023/12/29/automate-construction-power-ranking-2024/)

POWER RANKING RUBRIC

Activity

How busy is the company or tech working directly on construction automation projects?

1. No current projects
2. Small activity
3. Daily building
4. Notably high activity 
5. Scaled multi team 24 hr activity (None yet achieved)

Funding

How much access to capital does the company have

1. Bootstrapped
2. Pre Seed
3. Seed
4. 10M+
5. 100M+

Commercialization

Is the company doing projects, selling systems, and operating like a typical contractor

1. No commercial revenue
2. Small or subsidized commercial revenue
3. At least some work is sold with the expectation of profit
4. Regularly doing projects with expectation of profit
5. Gold rush (None yet achieved)

Code Compliance

Is the product sold following typical codes and regulations permissible everywhere?

1. No code is followed in any projects or project ending non compliance
2. Light local restrictions allow activity
3. Permitted projects in typical regions
4. Permitted projects in extra challenging regions
5. Identical to traditional methods in ease of permitting

Innovation

Is the company doing new things all the time?

1. No notable improvements over last year
2. Small progress
3. Clearly innovating
4. Wildly unique
5. Vertically integrated innovation

Reliability

Does the company follow through on promised projects, predictions, and products? 

1. Multiple cases of no follow through
2. Typical startup challenges
3. Consistently delivers
4. Exceptional delivery & delivery rate
5. Top tier reliability (None yet achieved)

Publicity

Do people know the company exists?

1. Why are you so secret? Get the word out!
2. Minor publicity
3. Substantial publicity
4. Above average media exposure
5. Enormous PR 

Construction

Do they build stuff and operate like a normal construction company or construction equipment provider?

1. Operating like early startup
2. Some construction 
3. Contractor or commercial equipment provider
4. Experienced GC
5. Major construction player

Momentum

Are they growing and expanding or are their achievements getting old?

1. Activity is stale or shrinking
2. Advancing slowly
3. Rapidly scaling

Manufacturing is difficult and more important than ever. Most people underestimate the complexity behind simple things especially when they cost a fraction of a dollar but even object that can be acquired for small change require an army of skilled people to deliver the final product.

This was the core thesis of “I, Pencil” written by Leonard E. Read. This famous vintage essay illuminated the hidden intricacy behind things that appear fairly simple on the surface level, if you haven’t read it yet check it out for yourself. https://fee.org/ebooks/i-pencil/

After playing tennis in the sun with a friend (I won) we chatted it up and while describing his current job as an environmental lawyer, he brought up I, Pencil as an allegory for how complicated cases are handled. While listening to the details of how a massive case is chopped up into bite size pieces and distributed to those best suited to handle them, I couldn’t help but draw an analogy to construction, specifically construction innovation.

The first thing I considered was the basic Subcontractor/GC hierarchy with an average of 22 subcontractors required to build a single family home (ranging from 11-30). Unfortunately for the housing crisis, the complexity doesn’t end there.

Thinking back to the I, Pencil essay reveals final assembly is only a fraction of the problem. They discuss procuring lumber, graphite, metals, paint, whatever the heck erasers are made of… you get the point.

Now look around your home, everything from the drain pipes up to the roof tiles are independent products many of which have far greater complexity than a basic #2 pencil.

How do we fix it?

I don’t know but I have some ideas.

Let’s revisit one of my favorite inventors of all time, John Moses Browning. His creations are heralded as the most reliable of all time, outperforming even modern pistols on military durability testing. What did he have that others didn’t?

He had an understanding of the complete process.

Browning would design the entire pistol himself and assemble it himself too. His acute omniscience didn’t end there, he would also hand make the manufacturing tools to produce his product at scale. At first glance it may seem impractical for one person to tackle so many aspects of production, wouldn’t it be better to find the best designer, and the best blacksmith then distribute responsibility accordingly?

The magic of the Browning process was the precision with which he could tweak tiny tolerances producing weapons that were more accurate and reliable than anything the military had ever seen before.

Today even the design of a new firearm is divided between massive teams each responsible for 1 CAD file which are then combined to make the digital twin of a new model. From there they often outsource production of each part to different large teams who may or may not even be in communication. The spring manufacturer likely has no contact with the barrel manufacturer or the production team behind the slide. You end up with a game of telephone so complex it’s a miracle when they finally get it working. Though many salaried workers are passionate about their jobs, the incentive for perfection just isn’t as strong as the motive of John Moses Browning who personally won his contracts with the US military for his work.

It’s not trivial, it leads to tragedy like the recent death at Warren Air Force Base caused by an M18 that misfired when it was dropped, killing the owner of the government issued firearm (The owner of that firearm has since been arrested implying it may not have been a misfire).

I’m not saying we need one person to orchestrate every minute detail of building a house, thats frankly untenable from my perspective.

When I was doing construction labor on commercial buildings for a few months after college, I quickly learned the GC’s right hand man was a Polish carpenter. This guy knew his shit. The GC was only on site for maybe a couple hours 2-3 days a week so when he wasn’t around it was this skilled carpenter who called most of the shots. He knew how to read plans and he knew when to ignore them because the architect had some of the plumbing wrong in the pre construction as-built. Lego is a beautiful standard but in the real world, constructing a building from parts often means some of the parts don’t perfectly match your little instruction booklet the way Legos do.

It may not be the carpenter on every job but there is almost always someone who understands far beyond their specific role, not from a top down perspective like the GC with the primary responsibility of measuring competency and negotiating contracts but a bottom up perspective who deeply comprehends the nuts and bolts from years of screwing them together.

So here’s my big idea of the day.

If you want to innovate the future of housing you need some grey beards with that innate understanding for the job site to bridge the gap between the future and the present. It’s pretty wild how something as everyday as making stuff like a pencil, a gun, or even a whole house hides this massive tangle of knowhow that nobody can really wrap their head around alone. That’s the genius of Leonard E. Read’s old essay “I, Pencil,” showing how it takes a whole orchestra of talents to pull off what looks dead simple. But then you have folks like John Moses Browning who nailed it by owning every step, from sketching ideas to cranking out the tools for mass production. These days, with everything chopped up among subs, far flung suppliers, and teams that barely talk, that big-picture grasp slips away, causing screwups, wasted time, and yeah, sometimes real heartbreak. If we’re serious about fixing the mess in housing and pushing building tech ahead, we’ve got to give the spotlight to those old school pros the “grey beards” with their hands on smarts from years in the trenches who can handle the messiness of actual job sites. They’re the ones who can connect pie in the sky plans with the gritty here and now, unlocking ways to create tougher, smarter homes and systems. So, why not hunt them down, soak up what they know, and weave it in before another wonky fitting or bad weld throws everything off track?

Having stayed in some myself, I realized there are probably many people around the world eager for the experience to stay in a 3D printed house and today there are many opportunities to do so at various price points. I took the liberty of sharing every Airbnb link I could find for 3D printed houses with you below, let me know if I’m missing any (I certainly am) and I will be sure to update this article to include it.

Let’s get started! First we will list the properties I’ve been able to personally visit and film, if you’d like be to stop by your 3D printed airbnb and make a video just reach out via the contact form on this website.

Fibonacci House

Location: Central Kootenay E, Canada

I got to stay in this awesome home years ago courtesy of TAM, this one is unique because their headquarters and print facility is located just up the road! You may even get a chance to meet some of their team (no promises). Reaching this location is an adventure in itself, about an hour east of Nelson, BC you’ll take a ferry to this otherwise inaccessible natural getaway.

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/50461670?source_impression_id=p3_1753380118_P3PpRX-gm1f4-_DV

Casitas at the Halles

Location: Round Top, Texas, USA

These 4 homes are all available on Airbnb and are among the most well documented on my channel over a series of many videos showing off their progress under construction and post completion. A short video of this project was my most viewed video of all time with over 200M views across social media. My video of this project starts with another home they sold which is not available on Airbnb but the other 4 linked below are also toured by Hive CEO Tim Lankau at the end of the video.

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1330553730006754764?source_impression_id=p3_1753380421_P3LZewSqp3bGe1NT

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1330564157479411293?source_impression_id=p3_1753380423_P3msbAUYpMRbQLmW

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1330576238680596733?source_impression_id=p3_1753380427_P3lIEePVkaD-lMC1

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1330584291506029927?source_impression_id=p3_1753380411_P3jIZ83hiBzIyJtn

East 17th Icon Homes

Location: Austin, Texas, USA

I got to stay in these homes with influencer Belinda Carr where we recorded a podcast and reviewed the details of the home we got to stay in. I happen to live in Austin so if you are in town make sure to say hi, maybe we can grab tacos together if I’m not traveling to a 3D printed house somewhere. This one is on VRBO but certainly still counts!

https://www.vrbo.com/2508458

First Printed Home in Ohio

Location: Wapakoneta, Ohio, USA

Like the Hive homes in the previous listings, this home was also printed by a Cybe printer with a different team. The home is located on a 150 acre farm.

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1240463666141730203?source_impression_id=p3_1753380120_P39ONw54fiwxMBxz

Mighty Buildings Homes

Location: Yucca Valley, California, USA

Mighty Buildings may be bankrupt and out of business but these AirBnbs are still up and running! Personally I strongly dislike polymers as a primary material for housing and being UV cured is even worse in my opinion. Despite all those things, a few nights probably wouldn’t hurt anyone and the architectural design is nice. I filmed a similar unit near the Mighty Buildings headquarters years ago, be warned I had a mustache back then.

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1275596771963008719?source_impression_id=p3_1753380115_P3k1mIpfzYgYU6uM

Airbus & Audi Engineers Home

Location: Orlando, Florida, USA

Here is another home that looks like polymer printing, supposedly it was built by Airbus and Audi engineers but I am not sure if those companies have any association to this project. Frankly I just found out about this one while searching for 3D printed AirBnbs online. It looks nice with massive windows but as I mentioned I am not a fan of plastic for homes.

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/564791326676184170?source_impression_id=p3_1753380116_P3XovwVx1I60bLWf

Casita Luna

Location: Playa Jeremi, Curaçao

This must be the most beautiful printed AirBnb in the world, located in what looks like a cave like structure right on the beach I can only imagine it’s an incredible experience.

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1223332651324801011?source_impression_id=p3_1753381675_P3hkHKQF6zP0NBVI

If you’ve enjoyed this article, sign up for the Automate Construction newsletter so you never miss a beat. It’s pretty rare I send emails there is no posting schedule so you can be sure there won’t be a bunch of new slop clogging your inbox.

https://automateconstruction.beehiiv.com/subscribe

If you want to get involved with 3DCP yourself, my online course is a great place to start where you can learn the tough truths about the industry and the various equipment required to get started without the bias of one specific printing company telling you their solution is the best.

Course

Dear Icon 3D,

Engineering is hard.

Maybe harder than anything else in the world.

No reasonably intelligent person expects a brand new technology to work perfectly on the first iteration, hell even the 10th iteration.

Take a look at SpaceX for example (currently worth $350 Billion), I just went to a launch in Boca Chica, Tx and that thing exploded all over Turks and Caicos… but it was a success!

They captured the booster with Godzilla sized chopsticks and the crowd erupted in celebration not only in Isla Blanca state park where I watched it from, but around the world.

What does this have to do with Icon?

EVERYTHING! First of all they have a beautiful building down there at the ad astra school near SpaceX, perhaps the best printed building in the world and yet their trajectory is not quite parallel with SpaceX to say the least. Why does one company blow up rocket after rocket and still continue growing at breakneck speeds while the other had to let go of half their team?

It all comes down to PR.

A company sets their own goalposts with their PR. Icon went fast and cheap with their PR strategy. They checked all the boxes from a AAA rated Apple style marketing campaign from 2010. 60 minutes, CNN, NBC, CBS, Forbes, Bloomberg, Architectural Digest, TechCrunch, Wired, The Verge they did it all!

What did they use these platforms for?

Every single time all they did was sell the vision like it was the present.

Don’t get me wrong that’s a powerful move, one Elon himself has certainly used to inspire millions if not billions on his ambitions for mars but that’s the icing on the cake and you can’t live on icing alone.

A company cannot survive on junk food marketing.

SpaceX thrives after their $50 million dollar rockets explode into smithereens because they did a phenomenal job using their PR to set the right goalposts along the way: Launching a rocket, landing a rocket, reusing a rocket, catching a rocket with giant chopsticks from the sky!

I think you get the point but my criticisms do not end there.

Lets take another look at 2010. Back then people trusted the mainstream media because it’s all we had. You could debate whether you trusted CNN, Fox, or Reuters but that was the end of the story. Today we know all those companies are basically owned by the same people pushing the same narratives. Regardless of your political opinions its impossible not to acknowledge the damage that has been done to traditional media and the current political climate in America is a massive reflection of that. Big media burned the trust of the American people to the point where their word has become an anti-signal, perhaps the strongest one of all.

I saw this coming in 2019 that’s why I set out to build my own independent brand where nobody can tell me what to say. I don’t believe anything that I don’t see in person so I set out to travel the world gathering primary sources of things I am interested in.

That thing was 3D printed construction and construction automation and it still is.

My first videos were out of pure passion and curiosity. I never tried to cater my videos to a specific audience I just tried to film stuff that was interesting to me, low and behold other people appreciated it too. At first not that many people, I would sleep in my car to travel the country to all the very first printed buildings in America and around the world for 2 full years. Eventually I named the brand Automate Construction and made a real business out of it to the point I could afford an apartment to live in, a tesla as my noble steed and a motel 6 anywhere in the country so that I could be anywhere the construction automation was happening.

For 5 full years I never charged a company a dime. With the exception of my trip to Europe I never even accepted travel costs or accommodations because I wanted to preserve the integrity of the brand and it worked! Nobody could tell me what to say, I didn’t get rich but I was free and having a blast, still am!

I’ve reached hundreds of millions of people and grown an audience an order of magnitude larger than Icons itself with nothing but grassroots authenticity and an iPhone with internet connection.

I would have loved to keep doing this forever, I even said on multiple occasions I would never charge companies for my videos.

Icons PR team ruined that.

I moved to Austin Tx because it was the closest proximity to the most 3DCP projects, biggest of all was Icons. I would have filmed with them every week if they let me! I never would have charged them a dime.

SpaceX and Tesla were smart enough to recognize the downfall of big media ages ago. EverydayAustronaut (Tim Dodd), MKBHD, NASAspaceflight, LabPadre, What About it!? (Felix Schlang) Dr. Knowitall, Elle in Space, the list goes on. Sure Elon gave interviews to the mainstream media on occasion too but the coolest stuff all went to the independent content creators first.

This was the vision I had for my relationship with Icon but their PR team wasn’t having it. They wanted to control the narrative and they weren’t even good at it. In fact, I think the narrative created by the Icon PR team is the single defining feature causing them all the trouble they have faced in the past 2 years.

Icon hasn’t given me one opportunity to make a video in the past year. I asked countless times and on the rare occasion their PR team answered me they rejected every offer even though it was totally free to them and I even offered the opportunity to review and delete any segment they didn’t want published in advance.

This is the reason I had to change my business model. If I can’t film every company, especially one of my OG favorites then there is no point in doing it all for free. Because of Icons horrible PR team, I was forced to start charging for my videos.

This has turned out to be an amazing decision, after filming in my style for 5 years companies have come to really appreciate it and even though now they are sponsored videos the companies specifically ask me not to hold back and still give my true opinions. So far they haven’t even asked me to delete anything in the review process which has been super awesome. By charging a flat rate I ensure no company gets special treatment and returning visits to companies I have visited in the past are half off to keep the audience updated on their old friends and reward the companies who were kind enough to let me visit them in the past, some when I had virtually no followers at all.

Enough about me back to Icon.

I’m a big believer that if you aren’t part of the solution you are part of the problem so I am not going to just sit here pointing fingers.

Here is how Icon can fix their PR.

Obviously money is tight (I saw some incredible architects, materials scientists, and other 10/10 people were let go) Get rid of anyone who isn’t a Founder, Coder, Engineer, or Laborer. You don’t need frivolous BS everyone should be getting their hands dirty.

When Jason Ballard comes back, put a camera in his hand. Jason should be the true head of the company not just internally but externally. Post videos directly from his phone to social media, go live, host spaces and let every independent content creator who really gives a shit film stuff.

Authenticity is the name of the game. Don’t be reckless, consult with the lawyers in advance and think very carefully before speaking but DO NOT let the marketing people put their hands on it.

Talk about the monthly goals and let us see you hit them.

Let us see you miss them too.

Show us the spectacular explosions over Turks and Caicos. Sure, some losers will make dumb comments but the real fans like me will stand by you every step of the way through thick and thin. Apple style marketing from 2010 doesn’t work anymore we are living in 2025 and you are building the construction company of 2030.

With great love and admiration,

the Grossest

It’s that time of year again! World of Concrete is currently one of the biggest gatherings of 3DCP folks all year so I stopped by to see what they are up to (even though I still think WOC should give 3DCP more attention and priority).

This year I am doing an article instead of a video from the event so I got a picture with every 3DCP group I could find! If you see me there next year make sure to stop me and get a picture so I can include you too! Here are all the groups I interacted and what they were up to at the show.

Printera

These guys have started working with SpecMix on their Vertico printer and they are doing great! Check out the non-planar print they brought to the show, they are also currently fundraising on startengine.com (not investment advice). Personally I always throw some fun coupons into 3DCP crowdfunding any opportunity I get no matter what company it is, I don’t think I have missed one yet! They also let me crash at their AirBnb during the show which was a fun switch up from being by myself with my dog. We hit Area 15 while we were in Vegas, it was quite an unexplainable experience!

RIC

RIC was one of 3 groups printing at the show and the only group printing outside with a large scale system that has permitted units under its belt. They brought along their latest generation of printers featuring both wheels AND rails, quite a combo! In addition to the massive Walmart project I visited, I also just got to see a fire resistant ADU they built in California which is obviously more important than ever.

3D Potter

This is the most affordable printer on the market, we actually have one listed on the used printer marketplace JazariBots.com for just $29,000 you can contact the owner on that website. There is a building underway using this printer in Florida, their CEO Danny who invented this system is in his 70s still working as hard as ever to bring about the future of construction! I got to tour their facility and learn how he made most of the original parts for the first one by hand.

Quikrete

This was the 3rd group printing this year at the show, of course printing is my favorite thing to see so hopefully next year we can get more than just 3 printers in action at the show.

Vertico

Surely you all remember Vertico from my very first podcast episode and my trip to Europe, they are exceptionally skilled at layer quality and parametric design. Volker has been crushing it selling a bunch of printers.

MAI

This was my first time meeting Gervin, the CEO and owner of MAI. They are very passionate about digitalization and data collection making them well positioned for the 3DCP industry. MAI makes one of the most popular mixer pumps used in the 3DCP industry. It’s my second favorite product made in Austria!

Sika

Sika had a cool workshop that they allowed me to attend where they had a panel of 5 experts answering questions from the crowd about 3DCP. Sadly I had to run out early because someone called animal control on me for leaving my dog in the car even though it was a pleasant 69 degrees on dog mode! My dog loves the car and I check in on him often with the cameras. Vegas needs to learn more about how Teslas work with dog mode!

After dealing with animal control I got back to the show and got this great picture with Noah, the champion of 3DCP at Sika. He has fostered Sikas participation in 3DCP from the time it was a very small industry and now they have 4 concrete plants distributing 3DCP material in America alone.

Putzmeister

This team has the Karlos printer which is an adaptation of their concrete pump truck specifically made for extruding 3D printed concrete. I haven’t got to see it in action yet so I can’t speak to it’s capabilities but hopefully that will change soon! It was fun to see Matt who was my second podcast guest of all time.

Alquist

Zach was hanging out at the shared Alquist/ RIC booth when we got this picture, they are the exclusive US distributor of the RIC system and now have a leasing program. Their Walmart project was the best of the year in 2024 and they have another one coming up soon which I look forward to visiting.

Ventures Equipment

This mixer pump company has consistently worked with 3DCP companies customizing their product offering to maximize utility for construction automation. They were my first channel sponsor ever in 2021-2022 and without them I am not sure that year of filming would have even been possible. They bring a strong Texan work ethic to the table and have often been seen going above and beyond to deliver.

Mapei

This group didn’t have 3DCP featured at the show this year but as an early contributor to the industry they certainly deserve an honorable mention. Hopefully they revisit their interest in 3DCP!

Gaudi

This group had the best booth at the show for WOC 2024, but in 2025 they didn’t bring their printer. WOC should be more accommodating of 3DCP companies, I hear they charge by the pound for bringing stuff into the show which is completely unfair to the 3DCP companies who want to do big prints. It was still fun to see them, hopefully I can visit one of their projects in America soon. Gaudi is the USA branch of Winsun 3D, the very first company featured on my youtube channel. If you go all the way back to my first 3 youtube videos you will see my visit to their facility from my trip to China.

Terran

This group prints with adobe, potentially my favorite construction material. Danny in the pink hat is the first founder featured on my channel to actually live in a home partially built with his own technology, an achievement I have looked forward to someone reaching for a long time!

Sunnyday Technologies

Nick is a familiar face in 3DCP to many, and I got to sit next to him at the Sika workshop event (until animal control called). He also works for Oshkosh, a company that has been increasing their robotics activity in the construction realm and getting ever so close to a real building bot that I could some day cover on my channel, although as of now it’s mostly scanning/sensor tech which is just outside my niche.

ICE 3DCP

This team recently completed the first 3D printed restaurant in the world, it was my first time meeting them in person but hopefully not the last.

And that’s all folks!

Sorry if we didn’t get a picture together, I know there were more 3DCP folks at the show I didn’t get to see. What did you think of the picture/blog format from the show this year? I think it’s a much better style for conferences compared to a video because nothing that special happens at the conferences anyway. I like to capture true moments of construction automation history on my youtube channel, not sales demos. That said, I still had a blast at the show! In total across the 3 days I walked a full marathon even though I used the boring loop as much as I could and got a few rides on the golf cart from south to north hall. All in all I had a great time at WOC 2025!

Some of the long time fans of Automate Construction might know that I love reading! In a world of short form content, few things are more satisfying than spending a multi hour chunk on one topic guided by someone who put immense thought and care intro crafting the journey that is a book, story, or novel.

Evan Maindonald, General Partner of Hyperlight Ventures reached out to me after seeing some of my Linkedin posts on construction tech and asked me to read a pre release copy of his new book “Breaking New Ground”. Evan made his mark on the world in property development from the ground up. His story is an inspirational primary source on deal structuring and risk.

As of today, Nov 20th, you can read it too!

Evan’s tale is one of success but he does not paint the picture with rosy colored glasses, risk is a key component of the book but Evan goes into great detail on creative financing options which create extremely attractive risk profiles for someone with nothing to lose! How can someone with nothing to lose get started in property development? It sounds crazy but there are strategies outlined in the book to do exactly that.

The reason Evan asked me of all people to read his book is because he knows I take a no BS approach to looking at construction technologies. One key aspect of “Breaking New Ground” is an introduction to a variety of forward looking technologies, some previously featured on Automate Construction but most of them I’ve never even had the chance to explore.

Reading “Breaking New Ground” was refreshing because instead of forcing tech on you with wild claims, Evan describes a future of prosperity and progress amplified by digital construction.

Evans VC firm Hyperlight Ventures is an investor in Azure, previously featured on the Automate Construction Podcast. Evan ran a promotional video with Automate Construction for the book. This article is independent of that promotion I am just a fan!

Check out Hyperlight Ventures portfolio company Azure 3D

Startups and tech giants around the world are competing to build the best humanoid robot soon I’ll be visiting projects like this in person and interviewing their Founders for now let’s run through all of the competitors in this space and see what they’re up to we’ll start stationary and get more advanced as we go in no particular order.

Want to make sure you know when I find new startups? Sign up for the newsletter!

Ambidex – Naver Labs

A stationary robot that has a cable system so that it’s not too strong. You’re able to interact with the robot as a human being without risking getting crushed, ultimately we want to see these systems in the workforce so their ability to work alongside humans in a safe manner is paramount to their success. This system is teleoperated which means they use some kind of controller or haptic device. This is different from full autonomy.

Realman

One of the few systems I’ve been able to see in person so far called the real man it was at the automate 2024 show in Chicago sorting some blocks on it’s screen you can see the vision processing system it’s using to assess the color.

S1 – Astribot

Controlled with AI instead of teleoperation so you don’t need a human controller. They’ve got it working with food, in every kindergarten computer class they teach you not to have food around computers so it’s particularly impressive when you see robots working in this kind of environment the big question is how long it would last over time?

Kime – Macco

Kime by Mako a robotic bartender that operates within an apparatus containing all the dispensers it needs to run a small business by itself. At first I wasn’t sure whether or not to include stationary systems but this company makes it clear their ambition is to build a full humanoid robot so it’s best to start covering their story early.

Armar 6 – Karlsruhe University

Armar 6 is a project over 14 years old from a German University back then the robots were moving a lot slower and I think they’ve improved some of the design aesthetically too. Even back then their system had the ability to mimic the movement of a person without any kind of controller.

Promobot

another older system is promobot which is in the category of communication robots back then language translation was a big deal these days AI handles that in seconds.

Pepper – Softbank Robotics

SoftBank robotics has two robots on this list the first of which being pepper this is a stationary robot with two arms and a screen. In one case it was paired with an additional apparatus so that it can run a small ice cream business. It’s unclear what the maintenance requirements would be or the longevity of a system like this but it’s certainly exciting to see.

Eve – 1X

now we move on to the humanoid robots on Wheels they don’t quite have legs yet although this company 1X does have a robot in development called Neo that will have legs. Eve is fairly advanced already it’s also able to navigate through a variety of doors course and openings. Like many of the companies on this list advancements in AI have allowed for new levels of software integration and capabilities that were previously untenable. As of March Eve is now able to do tasks like clean things up and even fold clothes which was previously touted as an impossible task for robots. 1X has been around for 10 years and their CEO burnt puts a high priority on safety that’s why the system has a soft body so that if it hits something it won’t be damaging as metal or hard plastic might.

Hector – Laser Robotics

Small robots inherently require less materials and probably will operate with similar software so operating at this level might be useful.

NAO – Softbank Robotics

Soft Bank robotics builds NAO in addition to the ice cream bot we saw earlier. This is much smaller, a biped instead of a stationary system or robot on wheels.

OP3 – Google Deep Mind

Tiny bipeds from Google deepmind a project called op3. The interesting factor here is how they were trained. First they watched real soccer gameplay footage then operated in a virtual environment competing with each other to score goals and through thousands of iterations. Eventually they even picked up on strategies like defense. The simulations are all about trial and error to discover the most efficient ways to move. It’s wild how natural the simulation learned code looks relative to the scripted code.

Ergo Cub – IIT

Ergo is a research project by the Italian Institute of Technology. Ergo Cub is controlled with the ifeel suit, a person wears the full body suit and special shoes which have sensors so that the computer can track the human motions and translate them to the robot along it to be teleoperated.

Hydra

Hydra which was also trained partially in a simulation this system is only legs but the notable aspect is that it’s all Hydro electrostatic actuators. Hydraulic actuators are much stronger than electric actuators but this also makes them more dangerous. Actuators are a fundamental component of humanoid robots as opposed to stepper Motors more commonly used in 3D printing. Actuators come in three main categories hydraulic, electric, or pneumatic some teams are building their actuators in house. I can’t wait to meet some of the experts working with this stuff handson and get their perspective.

4NE1 – Neura Robotics

Neura Robotics brought 4NE1 to the automate 2024 conference but it was just stationary like a statue not doing any kind of tasks they’ve released this video but it’s just a rendering hopefully we get to see some realaction soon but for now they’re not making these for anyone.

Themis – Westwood Robotics

Themis is the full-size humanoid robot from Westwood robotics they also have a small smaller research based robot. This bigger unit isn’t exactly for sale yet but they do have this clever teaser video demonstrating its ability to walk and carry things. It doesn’t have complicated hands yet. Their smaller system Bruce is available for $16,000 and they have a few different $2,000 bonuses if you’re able to complete tasks like flipping and other complex Maneuvers for about that size $16,000 seems pretty expensive 

Nadia – IHMC

Nadia is a research project from the Florida Institute of human and machine cognition and as Floridians would, the first thing they’re teaching it is combat. Nadia is capable of breaking planks and they’ve also trained it to hit a moving pad with gloves. Lately Nadia is working on her dodging skills. When Nadia earns her black belt she might have some serious defense tech applications.

Magicbot – Magic Labs

Magic bot from Magic Labs was one of the last companies to make this list. I had been searching for humanoid robotic companies to include for months and in the final days of preparation stumbled across this company. Their website is just a logo and their YouTube channel has under a thousand subscribers but their humanoid robot seems to have quite dextrous hands that’s even capable of folding clothes. It’s unclear whether this is human operated with a controller or some type of AI capable of these tasks without the human in the loop.

Apollo – Apptronik

First full-size bipedal humanoid robot on this list with hands and dexterity able to walk and lift things on its own. Right now they seem focused on logistics and warehouse operating roles.

CyberOne – Xiaomi

One of many competitive Chinese companies in the humanoid robotic space. Demonstrated the ability to to walk, hold an item and also pass it off to a human in a public conference. Their partnership with Xiaomi means there’s no shortage of manufacturing capacity resources and talent available 

Kepler

It does appear to be a bipedal humanoid but it’s attached to an overhead system and also plugged in perhaps not the most advanced system on the list 

GR1 – Fourier

Fourier intelligence is developing the GR1 with the unique goal of elderly care. I’m going to take a hardline stance here that many of you will disagree with but I think that there’s more than enough people on Earth for companionship and these roles are much better served with real humans rather than robots we need robot workers not robot friends.

CL1 – LimX Dynamics

Limex Dynamics is a collaborative organization with participants from many American and Chinese universities. Altogether they’ve published over 130 papers on the topic of humanoid robots. The cl1 has demonstrated its ability to climb up steps though it was supported with a gantry system and safety cables. I’m always a bit more impressed when they’re confident enough to let the robot operate without supporting cables.

PX5 – Xpeng

Xpeng is a Chinese auto manufacturer and they’ve developed the px5. It seems many auto manufacturers are trying their hand at humanoid robots, perhaps the manufacturing experience they have will help in bringing a technology like this to scale once they figure out how to make them most effective. Not only can it navigate a dynamic floor surface it’s also able to use different navigation methods like a hoverboard so instead of walking it’s just leaning forward and backward. Kind of a roundabout way to get a humanoid robot on Wheels but hey it’s pretty impressive.

Pal – Talos

Pal was initially released by Talos six years ago and lately they’ve been releasing new videos in the past year of it completing new tasks like navigating stairs and surfaces that that are not flat this is in anticipation of helping a system like this leave the warehouse and walk around in the real world. Other systems are already capable of completing this task but for each one they need to go through these learning steps kind of like a toddler so that they’re able to be competent in everyday scenarios out in the real world.

Menteebot – Mentee Robotics

An interesting system that looks much more lean than some of the other robots in this category. It’s an AI first company and they hope the system will be able to learn from people as a mentee. The arms seem quite long relative to the size of the body and it notably has no head. Interesting design choices, personally I appreciate function over form. I can’t wait to learn more about the advantages and disadvantages of the different form factors these systems take on.

H1 – Unitree

Unitree a company which also builds quadruped robots makes the H1 it’s a humanoid robot, it just doesn’t have hands. This system is able to navigate steps and complete tasks like turning around in the narrow scope of the top of these steps. 

G1 – Unitree 

their brand new humanoid robot new and improved and this one as as you can see does include hands it’s weird seeing some of the odd robotic motions they’re capable of I’m sure unry has learned a ton from the H1 and they’ve implemented a lot of those learnings into the G1 it’s able to take quite a beating and still remain upright balancing itself after being punched or pushed in the release video. They say it will be for sale for $16,000 though I’m not sure when it will be commercially available. Unitree also demonstrated how it’s capable of folding up for a sort of transport mode to ne carried by humans. It seems small enough that it could be picked up and moved fairly easily, that said it’s still over 75 lbs so lift with your knees and maybe hit the gym if you haven’t been picking things up in a while. Like we learned earlier systems like this are often trained in simulations. This robot was trained with reinforcement learning simulating motions thousands of times before practicing them in the real world. The robots ability to crack a walnut is kind of intimidating and brings up the question of safety. How strong should the robot be? it’s impressivly able to open a  bottle cap without cracking the glass.

Figure – OpenAI partnership

Figure is among the most competitive and compelling players in the space of humanoid robots. They’ve recently announced a partnership with open AI so that their system can become smarter and adapt to more real world scenarios. Figure has also just raised $650 million to accelerate their progress in developing a humanoid robotic system. Many of their parts including actuators are developed in-house. The CEO Brett Adcock initially started a recruiting firm called Vettery, sold it for $100 million then started Archer an electric air craft firm worth $2.7 billion now he’s started figure and his ambition is to automate human labor. It’s been shown making a coffee which may not seem too complex at first glance but when you consider how many intricacies and possibility for error there is you start to understand why it’s so important to have an artificial intelligence that can adapt to all the different real world scenarios that might arise. If you want to keep up with the latest advancements in software AI their CEO Brett is a great follow on X every Sunday he posts a comprehensive overview of pretty much every major development in the AI software space seems like moving boxes will be the first job of many of these systems.

Optimus – Tesla

The third iteration of robot from Tesla. They’ve been advancing quickly initially unveiling the Bumblebee concept then Optimus gen 1. Recently on X Elon said they’re working on a version which will have 22 degrees of freedom in the hands instead of 11. They’ve got it walking around the factory without any kind of special harness and although the gait may look kind of strange it’s a significant improvement from the earlier walking in both pace and aesthetic. Tesla has two massive advantages when it comes to humanoid robots they’ve got a hardware and manufacturing advantage both in developing things like actuators in-house and producing them at scale. Tesla also has a software advantage because of the AGI behind FSD. If the software can understand the world around it it can navigate through it without causing any harm. Finger sensors allow fragile egg handling (The video did show an egg boiler) without cracks. Considering how much manufacturing Tesla does, they know as well as anybody which roles are important to replace with robots first or which roles might be most suited for a humanoid robot to complete. They’re teaching a humanoid robot to place electric battery cells from a rack into a container and it’s being instructed by humans which are completing the task next to it. After learning the system can become autonomous in real time and has some degree of artificial intelligence to the capacity it’s able to correct when it makes a simple error. Online commenters have mocked this task claiming that battery placement could be done by a cheaper two axis robot but it’s only demonstrating early cap capabilities in a simpler environment things are going to get complex faster than you can imagine 

Phoenix – Sanctuary AI

Phoenix has been developed by Sanctuary AI again with a very high concentration on AI capabilities here it’s demonstrating potential medical applications AI is important in these systems because many simple tasks require higher orders of reasoning for example just emptying a simple grocery bag requires an understanding of the space available in the fridge relative to the objects being put inside which objects can be nudged moved adjusted and what might be fragile or brittle they call their software carbon Ai and it’s developed inhouse designed to blend the benefits of symbolic and neural reasoning while mitigating the challenges of both I’m not a software guy but my interpretation is that means they’re using cameras to understand the world around it and also some type of language model which has an understanding of different objects and their meaning in society 

Walker S – Ubtech

Capable of complex tasks like folding, this Chinese company has integrated a language model so that you can interact with the robot by talking to it and get basic responses. They ask what pants might go good with a shirt the robot folded and the robot replies a dark color would be nice. If you look closely you can see the top left corner of the shirt is not quite folded perfectly. Considering they left this in the final cut of the video I imagine this took many tries. This robot has also been introduced to automotive production enviroments where it’s been employed as an inspection bot testing simple things like the seat belts. Cars and humanoid robots seem separate seated by The hip, almost every major auto manufacturer is either building buying or partnering with some type of humanoid robotics.

THR3 – Toyota

Toyota’s also got a contestant in the humanoid robot race called the THR3. it’s demonstrated having tele-operation with a person wearing typical goggles that we’ve seen other companies use and gloves set up with integrated arms to control the robot. THR3 is able to do tasks like manipulate arubber ball without losing grip on it.

Surena IV – University of Tehran

University of Tehran is among the groups working on humanoid robots for an extended period per of time, this experience has culminated into Serena 4 their latest iteration of humanoid robot that seems to be able to copy human movements and complete a variety of tasks which include drilling. This is particularly exciting for our long-term audience because they know automation in construction is our primary concentration. I ultimately believe humanoid robots are going to be important on construction sites around the world, especially in areas with skilled labor shortages. Seeing a robot that can drill is one step closer to that construction automation dream. This robot’s also able to write its own name about as well as I could. With some handwriting and construction classes this could get interesting 

Robonaut – NASA

Project over a decade old which they supposedly were going to send to space to help the astronauts, though I couldn’t find any footage of the system operating in space conditions.

Digit – Agility Robotics

Digit by Agility Robotics is starting with logistics and warehouse tasks, mostly picking and placing objects with its claw-like hands. They’ve made a deal with Amazon where they’re testing its capabilities in their Logistics departments Amazon employs over 750,000 robots and every year they’ve been accumulating more and more. An interesting aspect of this system is the reverse folding legs. Instead of bending forward the knee bends backward and there’s an additional support structure from the back of the knee to the gluteus maximus.

Atlas – Boston Dynamics

With hydraulic actuators, this system was among the first humanoid robots to walk and by far the most capable that people had seen in the past decade. It was capable of dynamic motion, flips, and a variety of services. Boston Dynamics was purchased by Google then sold to Hyundai and last week when they announced that Atlas would be retiring it was really a sad thing to see them giving up.

Atlas 2 – Boston Dynamics

It turns out they weren’t giving up on humanoid robots just hydraulic actuators they would move to Electric actuators in Atlas 2 for their back drivable capabilities which are much more applicable for the human task humanoid robots will be replacing I can’t wait to see what Atlas 2 has in store for us.

Is on site batch plant mixing obsolete?

I recently spent 3 weeks in Calgary Canada commuting daily into the indigenous territory of the Siksika nation where Nidus 3D was printing the 3rd and 4th quadplexes from their 16 unit pilot project in the region.

On the first visit in 2023 Nidus was using the batch plant mixer on their Cobod system and for many reasons including the extreme climate the batch plant mixer had substantial challenges. On separate occasions during my first visit, the generator and pump both had issues which ended the day of printing.

This time around Nidus has implemented a new solution I had never before seen in person which has the potential to dramatically increase availability of printable material and reduce labor on site. Instead of hydrating the dry mix on site Nidus worked with Lafarge to batch mix the custom concrete at the Lafarge concrete plant an hour away and have it delivered in a regular mixing truck. From the truck, material is deposited into a pump which has sufficient precision to feed the printer. Long term one could imagine a truck which has a more precise pump as a built in feature.

The primary issue with this strategy is the length of time the truck is required on site. Typically these trucks dump their load as quickly as possible so they can move on to the next job site and make more money. Often they charge an hourly rate so keeping the truck on site through an entire print day may be very costly.

The key benefit to this strategy is reducing on site labor. By outsourcing material mixing and hydration, larger concrete companies which benefit from economies of scale handle one of the dirtiest parts of the job. When cementitious material arrives hydrated it dramatically reduces the airborne silica dust on site making for safer working conditions.

One way to preserve the benefits of off site mixing while navigating hourly concrete truck charges could be some material silo which can hold the wet mix in a printable state through agitation or chemical means so that the truck can go back to fill up instead of waiting on site.

Kudos to Nidus 3D for continuing to push boundaries driving construction automation forward through the challenging process of innovation. The future of technology will not come from people copying the status quo, it will arrive from the hands of those willing to try new things which have never been achieved before.

Being in the region so long I got to see many processes not previously featured on this platform including expanding spray foam insulation, pouring a bond beam, placing window and door lintels to facilitate printed concrete overhangs and more. We even got a glimpse of utilities for the gantry system besides just the printing itself.

Here’s all the best footage from my trip.

First of all I would like to congratulate everyone who made this list, I spend all my time keeping both eyes peeled on the latest construction automation projects and in the past 5 years of following the industry I’ve accumulated nearly 400 companies who I believe are paving the road to construction automation. 

For this list I have selected the 50 companies which caught my attention the most to rank on the following factors: Activity, Funding, Commercialization, Code Compliance, Innovation, Reliability, Publicity, and Construction. Each company received a 1-5 rating in each category. Bear in mind as a just one person I am limited in my ability to fully assess each metric of every company, I likely have many inaccuracies or blind spots. 

Here is how I assessed each category, keep in mind I can only judge what I have seen. I am also not a qualified judge. This is just for fun, certainly not financial advice especially considering the valuation of the companies is not something I considered in the rubric.

Next year many of these companies will be knocked out of the top 50 based on the strong newcomer projects yet to be announced for 2024! It’s incredibly exciting to watch this industry grow at a blistering pace with all the novel achievements, and bitter failures bound to happen along the way!

Here are the 2024 contenders. Remember these are the top 50 out of 400, just making the list is a significant achievement with lots of excellent companies shy of the 50 most powerful. If you would like to know how the Automate Construction Power Ranking system works scroll to the bottom for the rubric. 

Mighty Buildings | Power Ranking: 14 

Makes the list for their substantial fundraising and PR despite a relatively low number of delivered units. UV cured polymers and plastic in general are lesser than concrete, mortars, or adobe in my opinion.

R-Squared | Power Ranking: 15 

Young start up from Texas operating a Black Buffalo system, promising activity but too early for a mature power ranking.

Muddy Robots | Power Ranking: 16 

Adobe printing company started by Berkley Prof. Ronald Rael using local dirt, clay, and straw for unique structures with various new patterns. Existing building codes in many states stipulate a much lower psi requirement for adobe structures vs concrete.

Black Buffalo | Power Ranking: 16 

Printer manufacturer from South Korea who is fairly well funded and operates a unique system which has yet to be fully tested in the field though they do have some impressive permitted projects in Virginia.

Laticrete | Power Ranking: 16 

Materials company that operates a concrete printing arm, and they’ve been interested in the industry for years working with printed farms and others.

RIC | Power Ranking: 16 

Chinese company partnered with Kuka to provide robotic arm concrete printers, notably innovative for their vertically integrated mixing system.

Mudbots | Power Ranking: 17 

Concrete printer company with some virality in 2017, 2018 but no publicly announced completed projects. Innovative mixing R&D, yet lack of demonstrations is concerning.

Sq4D | Power Ranking: 17 

Early contender with a unique self assembling V one printer, hopefully they are working on their V2 however there’s been little to no activity. High publicity and innovation score, low in other metrics.

TAM | Power Ranking: 17 

Besides Laticrete this company has the highest commercialization among those previously mentioned. They’ve successfully sold multiple large printers around the globe.

Tvasta | Power Ranking: 17

 This concrete printing company operates in India and they have done an exceptional job adapting and developing unique solutions for their region with local materials, developing their own printer.

Vertico | Power Ranking: 17

High commercialization high activity and high reliability, vertico does great work but they have very little interest in construction.

Geopolymer International | Power Ranking: 18 

Highest yet on the innovative scale for their unique implementation of Geo polymer material which is a silica-based binder. No completed construction projects.

Contour 3D | Power Ranking: 19 

Among the highest yet mentioned in code compliance, this Aussie printing company completed a permitted addition to a building.

Figure | Power Ranking: 19 

Promising humanoid robot start up with potential to assist on job sites with simple tasks in 2 to 5 years. Top score for innovation and funding but a 1 out of 5 in activity, commercialization and construction because all of their energy is in R&D at the moment.

Heidelberg | Power Ranking: 19 

Materials company investing into printed concrete formulation notably innovative for managing the European concrete laws which stipulate cement concentration maximums in concrete far below what most printing companies use elsewhere.

MAI | Power Ranking: 19 

Mixing company with a mixing system used on some concrete printing sites which has plastic compartments for mixing making it easier to disassemble and power wash. Hopefully as the industry grows they put more attention towards their construction automation arm.

Wasp 3D | Power Ranking: 19 

Four out of five for innovation due to their unique choice of material, local dirt which can be much cheaper than concrete. Unfortunately they have a low number of true construction projects.

Additive Techtonics | Power Ranking: 20 

Additive tectonics gets a four out of five in code compliance and innovation for their utilization of a powder bed for printing quite different from the systems all other companies on this list are currently using. Low construction activity brings them down in other areas of this ranking system.

Besix 3D | Power Ranking: 20 

Small arm of a large construction company Besix, this team scores well in code compliance reliability and construction.

FIBO | Power Ranking: 20 

Construction equipment company scoring high in commercialization code compliance and construction but low in other areas.

M-Tech | Power Ranking: 20 

Concrete mixing company serving the most 3-D printed concrete sites scoring high in commercialization and construction. Disappointing progress and investment into their 3DCP products considering the market expansion.

Macro 3D | Power Ranking: 20 

Concrete printer developed by young entrepreneur scoring a 4 in innovation for their unique system.

Print4d | Power Ranking: 20

Ex Besix founder who started his own company developing his own system from scratch scoring high in reliability and commercialization, successfully selling printers but no publicized construction projects yet.

XTreee | Power Ranking: 20 

French printer company developed their own system from scratch scoring high in commercialization and a respectable 2 or 3 in all other categories.

UTU | Power Ranking: 20 

Promising Ukrainian start up with a completely unique system, admittedly I have a lack of insight here as they are the newest to me among these 50.

Harcourt | Power Ranking: 21

Lots of training and R&D activity, high reliability low number of construction projects. 

Hyperion | Power Ranking: 21

Respectable scores in all categories, four out of five in innovation for their factory in the field concept with an inflatable tent.

MiCob | Power Ranking: 21 

Unique concrete printer developed in India with successful construction projects and military contracts.

Sika | Power Ranking: 21 

Materials company scoring twos and threes across the board.

3D Plotter | Power Ranking: 21.5 

Scara printer developed for mostly clay or Adobe but capable of printing mortar mixes as well, yet to be seen on construction sites but highest yet for commercialization. They have sold dozens of printers and been a great tool for many people getting started.

Bemore3D | Power Ranking: 22 

Unique printer manufacturer from Spain with successful projects in Africa, scoring high in innovation.

Winsun 3D | Power Ranking: 23 

Early concrete printing company with massive R&D in 2016-2020 but fewer projects announced since, hopefully more coming soon.

Apis Cor | Power Ranking: 23

In house printer, mixing system, and delivery truck, this company scores high in innovation for a vertically integrated system and a top score in publicity.

Constructions 3D | Power Ranking: 23 

French printer manufacture scoring high in innovation with a three in all other categories besides commercialization and publicity where they currently sit at a 2 out of 5.

Cybe | Power Ranking: 23 

Printer manufacture with successful projects around the globe scoring high in activity and innovation. 

Hive | Power Ranking: 23 

Texas printing company with a very busy year scoring high in activity and innovation for their on site mixing truck.

14 Trees | Power Ranking: 24 

African printing company scoring a four in innovation and construction for completing over 10 units with a competitors system then developing their own printer in house.

Cobod | Power Ranking: 24 

Danish printer manufacture with systems operating in the most countries around the globe however their sales strategy resembles a multi level marketing scheme with the goal of turning customers into paid distributors. 

Mense Korte | Power Ranking: 24 

Architecture firm with multiple projects pushing boundaries of printing possibilities scoring very high in commercialization and code compliance also reliability and construction. Low scores in activity and funding, 3DCP is not their daily focus and architecture firms don’t require upfront capital like construction.

Mobbot | Power Ranking: 24 

French company with triple fours in commercialization code compliance and innovation, civil projects are great use cases for their printing system but no building construction.

Nidus 3D | Power Ranking: 24 

Canadian printing companies scoring high in innovation and construction for printing in challenging conditions with novel solutions.

PERI | Power Ranking: 27 

Major construction equipment company with triple fours in commercialization code compliance and innovation and a whopping five in construction for their legacy projects and boundary pushing printed buildings.

Printed Farms | Power Ranking: 27 

Four out of five in commercialization, innovation, publicity and construction for completing some of the earliest US projects and the biggest printed building in the world.

Fastbrick Robotics | Power Ranking: 27 

Top score in innovation for their one-of-a-kind bricklaying system also a four out of five in funding publicity and construction.

Emergent 3D | Power Ranking: 28 

California printer operator with good commercial activity and very skilled with construction in a challenging region with full permitting.

Botbuilt | Power Ranking: 28 

Robotic arm based automated framing system for pre-fabricated parts with a top score in code compliance considering the finished product is indistinguishable from legacy construction methods.

Diamond Age | Power Ranking: 29 

Top score in funding and innovation also ranking high in construction and activity this team has implemented the most in-house construction automation tools on site of any company on this list.

Built Robotics | Power Ranking: 29 

This company makes large construction equipment like dozers typically operated by one human and automates it so that the machine can complete the same task without the person inside. They score 4 in nearly every category.

Boxabl | Power Ranking: 31 

Boxable makes a pre-fabricated unfolding house that has recently received Arizona code compliance and hopes to expand this nationally they earn top scores in funding and publicity also very high in innovation

Icon | Power Ranking: 33 

Very active on site builder utilizing completely novel methods operating many printers on a day-to-day basis, top score in funding, innovation and publicity, fours in all categories besides commercialization and code compliance where they got a respectable 3. Due to great fundraising and government contracts it is not clear what level their commercialization is and they have a limited region of operation in TX with more relaxed permitting departments than other states.

***please see the rubric and disclosure below***

POWER RANKING RUBRIC

Activity

How busy is the company or tech working directly on construction automation projects?

1. No current projects
2. Small activity
3. Daily building
4. Notably high activity 
5. Scaled multi team 24 hr activity (None yet achieved)

Funding

How much access to capital does the company have

1. Bootstrapped
2. Pre Seed
3. Seed
4. 10M+
5. 100M+

Commercialization

Is the company doing projects, selling systems, and operating like a typical contractor

1. No commercial revenue
2. Small or subsidized commercial revenue
3. At least some work is sold with the expectation of profit
4. Regularly doing projects with expectation of profit
5. Gold rush (None yet achieved)

Code Compliance

Is the product sold following typical codes and regulations permissible everywhere?

1. No code is followed in any projects or project ending non compliance
2. Light local restrictions allow activity
3. Permitted projects in typical regions
4. Permitted projects in extra challenging regions
5. Identical to traditional methods in ease of permitting

Innovation

Is the company doing new things all the time?

1. No notable improvements over last year
2. Small progress
3. Clearly innovating
4. Wildly unique
5. Vertically integrated innovation

Reliability

Does the company follow through on promised projects, predictions, and products? 

1. Multiple cases of no follow through
2. Typical startup challenges
3. Consistently delivers
4. Exceptional delivery & delivery rate
5. Top tier reliability (None yet achieved)

Publicity

Do people know the company exists?

1. Why are you so secret? Get the word out!
2. Minor publicity
3. Substantial publicity
4. Above average media exposure
5. Enormous PR 

Construction

Do they build stuff and operate like a normal construction company or construction equipment provider?

1. Operating like early startup
2. Some construction 
3. Contractor or commercial equipment provider
4. Experienced GC
5. Major construction player

Reach out via the contact tab on this website if you have any questions regarding this list.

Disclosure: I own small equity positions in some of the companies mentioned from public Reg A offerings. My investment does not reflect my opinion on the quality of the investment, I gamble on every public Reg A offering I can find and afford in the construction automation industry. I have never accepted payment from any company on this list for videos or appearance on this list. Companies I hold positions in from public Reg A offerings include Boxabl, Apis Cor and multiple others which do not appear on this list. It should be made clear that I am not a professional investor and see these as a gamble with no consideration for the outcome. So far I have invested in every construction automation company available publicly via Reg A that I find simply because they do construction automation and for no other reason. Seriously, my least favorite company on the list of 400 could do a reg A offering and I would still invest if they had a reasonable minimum investment that I could afford. Was this a legal enough disclosure? I don’t know it’s more about personal journalistic ethics for me anyway please don’t arrest me love you all.

The housing crisis is one of the most pressing issues confronting society today. Innovation is the only means of resolving the world wide housing crisis. Companies have come up with various methods and solutions to solve this crisis, amongst many BotBuilt has come up with a solution. BotBuilt was founded by Brent Wadas along with his two business partners Barrett Ames and Colin Devine

BotBuilt is a technology based company whose Headquarters is in Durham, North Carolina. It is one of the leading robotics company that uses robotic systems to solve, complex construction problems. BotBuilt aims to solve the problem of Housing shortage in America, by bringing manufacturing innovation of mass production to homes, by utilizing adaptable, efficient robotic systems, specialized hardware, and cutting-edge software and making it possible for homes to be custom made by Robotics arms. This framework enables robotic precision, which enhances productivity, scalability, sustainability, and safety. In BotBuilt’s Durham warehouse, their robot arms build each home framing.

When it comes to building a house, Framing gives your home a shape and structure, it also impacts the quality of nearly every aspect of your home, from mechanicals to interior and exterior finishes. It is also one of biggest time consuming process in construction, one of the highest cost bearing process as far as material cost goes. it sets up everything else in that house and nothing much can be to that house until the framing is done.

BotBuilt Robotics

Robots are great with precision, when building cars, boats and things that require the use of light material like sheet metal, but when dealing with heavy materials such as Lumber, certain features have to be incorporated into the robotics system. BotBuilt Robots deals with Lumber, and they have been able to put the necessary features such as computer vision, motion path planning, tooling systems and collision detectors to enable their robotics system work efficiently.

BotBuilt has developed a software pack that uses two dimensional housing plan or three dimensional housing plan as a baseline. The computer processes the plan and builds up a panel book that shows the number of panel and dimensions of lumber needed to build the house. Once the robot plans its own motion path. They start building based on the housing plan.

The Future of Affordable Homes

While BotBuilt is focused on delivering revolutionary technologies to the robotics and construction industries, they are also motivated by the aim to make the construction process more inexpensive and sustainable.

The BotBuilt robotics systems help to make housing more affordable by reducing cost. When buildings are made using the traditional method, materials quantities are estimated and bought at high cost. BotBuilt systems eliminates wild guess but giving the exact materials need for the constructions, the system is also able to look at the market data, and shows were the material is cheapest at that point in time. Following the accurate assembly of construction frame components by BotBuilt’s robots, framing would be sent on-site to residences for assembly by workers. For builders, this reduces financial costs associated with purchasing wood in smaller (and therefore more expensive) quantities from lumberyards, as well as resources lost due to human mistake during framing. By leaving framing to dependable machinery, builders save time and money in the long run by smoothing the route to home inspections and making it easier for other tradesmen such as plumbers to conduct their work on the home.

The BotBuilt is currently doing wall panels with the sheathing and primary working with developers. They plan on extending their services to include and insulation package and a precut system, were the robots cut out the plumbing and wiring systems. This will involve pre-planning, but the company is keen on solving construction problems that consume time and lots of money.

With Brent Wadas as Chief executive officer, Barrett Ames as Chief technology officer and Devine as COO. They were determined to make housing affordable. Their technology and mission has already getting noticed across the globe, including being accepted into the prestigious YCombinator accelerator for the Winter21 cohort and a cofounder selected for inclusion on the prestigious Forbes 30 Under 30 list for 2023.

Earth:

Today, 1 in 3 humans live and work in buildings made from mud. The techniques to construct earthen buildings have been practiced across the planet for over 10,000 years.

SHIBHAM, YEMEN: “The Manhattan of the Desert”

The Mud skyscrapers within the walled city of Shibham were erected over 500 years ago. 

The mud city represents one of the earliest examples of urban planning for vertical construction.

COLORADO, USA:

Professor Ronal Rael is experimenting with a new combination of Mud and human ingenuity in San Luis Valley, Colorado. 

Rael 3D printed this Adobe vault without formwork or reinforcement. 

The angled slicing configuration enables the 6-axis robotic arm to build beyond the X-Y-Z axis of most gantry 3D printers.

The 3D printer by Twenty Additive Manufacturing starts at €345,000.

Rael recently printed in the heart of Denver, Colorado with the original model of his 3D printer. In the left silo of the photo above, you can see Rael’s original printer that starts at $29,500 from 3D potter.

Professor Rael, a Berkely student, and Rael’s son worked together to build the elegant towers seen above. Curious bystanders wandered up to watch with amazement as the machine deposited mud towers in front of the Denver History Museum.

A biker stopped to observe the alien machine in action. He asked Rael ‘isn’t there a guy that 3D prints mud buildings?’ Rael’s response was something along the lines of ‘yes, I am him’. Needless to say, the biker became very excited.

At some point in the 10,000 years of mud construction someone decided to add Earthen structures to the building code- just ask Rael, he lives in an inherited adobe home- and Rael’s former 3D printed Mud Silo project is permitted.

The design of the dome, or nubian vault, is in the shape of a catenary arch. 

Since a chain always hangs in complete tension, the catenary arch (the upside down chain) rests in complete compression; the arch allows materials with high compressive strength and low tensile strength, like concrete and mud, to form robust structures without reinforcement. 

The design freedom of 3D printing paired with the poor tensile strength of mud could increase the use of arches in the future of 3D printed design.

The 4th-century ruins of The Palace of Ctesiphon expresses the power of the catenary arch.

The last Persian capital in Iraq, the Palace of Ctesiphon, used mud brick to span over 25 meters (82ft.) without the use of formwork during its construction.

The Palace of Ctesiphon, aqueducts, and countless other ancient structures prove that ancient civilizations understood the omnipresent forces of compression and tension.

When these forces are understood we construct geometries that function in harmony with nature.

With that said- nature presents its challenges too.

MASSA LOMBARDA, ITALY:

In the photo above, the blue machine on the left is feeding dirt to the metallic 3D printer. The hole dug by the blue machine became a pond, and the dirt it moved became a 323-square-foot building; as seen completed in the photo below. 

0-kilometer supply chains are the vision of the Italian designers working at WASP; unload the printer on-site and erect your house using the dirt next to the machine. 

The rice husk, straw and mud mixture looks and feels like a coarse rope once it dries. 

The United Nations branch of Supply Chain Service recently visited the WASP headquarters to investigate this team’s disruptive potential.

From a material standpoint 3D printing mud has several challenges, but the potential upside is -to say the least- disruptive.

Typical 3D concrete printing mortar cost over $500 per ton and contain an assortment of sand, water, cement, additives, and fibers. The entire project can be ruined by an error in these sensitive mortar mixtures.

3D printable Geopolymers will cost you around $860- 2320 per ton.

According to WASP, the material cost of the building above is 900 Euro ($980)- dirt cheap. ***note from the editor, the mixing process still requires rotor stators during the print which are $1200 expendable parts good for 10-30 tons of material each***

However, to print with mud WASP had to conduct extensive material experiments on the contents of the soil on site. 

One of the hardest variables of 3D printing dirt is the components of the dirt: sand, clay, silt, etc, can drastically change from one meter to the next.

This change in components causes inconsistent material properties; and inconsistent material is the downfall of projects, literally.

Another challenge of printing with Adobe is erosion. 

To combat erosion WASP is once again looking to the past.

“Roman concrete,” CEO of WASP Massimo Moretti, explained in his deep Italian accent. 

Roman concrete is fundamentally different from the concrete that makes the bridges, buildings, and infrastructure that enables human life today. If we’re lucky, the concrete we use crumbles after 100 years; so what allows the aqueducts, the largest unreinforced concrete dome- the Pantheon- and other Roman architecture to survive 2,000 years of erosion?

First Vitruvius, and later Pliny the Elder (who died in the Pompeii volcano) recorded that the best concrete was made with ash from volcanic regions of the Gulf of Naples. 

For two millennia the recipe was lost. In 2023, the brightest and highest-funded institutions in the world teamed up to uncover the Roman secrets.

For two millennia the recipe was lost. In 2023, the brightest and highest-funded institutions in the world teamed up to uncover the Roman secrets.

The researchers discovered the Romans combined an overabundance of lime and volcanic ash to create a superheated reaction.

The ‘hot mix’ results in new reactions, faster curing rates, and self-healing concrete. 

When the concrete cures and eventually cracks, it exposes the lime to air and water; this mixture rekindles the initial reaction, bringing the lime back to life to expand and fill the crack.

In the past, the excessive amounts of lime were thought to be an accident by the Romans.

The abundance of lime in the mixture continuously causes the ancient concrete to heal itself just like a scab repairing a cut- and the volcanic ash and lime required to recreate this concrete is abundant. 

After getting into the intricacies of Roman concrete with Massimo he powerfully summed up our conversation in one word: “Alchemy!”

Massimo always speaks of his work in a philosophical light.

Just as a river melts away one layer of Earth’s sediment at a time, the building above was eroded until it had to be destroyed. There are no articles exposing the truth about this building’s unfortunate end, but I saw its gravesite first hand and according to the WASP team themselves, it lasted under a year.

The destruction of this unprecedented architectural marvel represents the bitter-sweet reality that WASP is potentially decades ahead of their time. 

“There’s a bunch of solutions for erosion, but nothing that’s natural and cheap in Africa and South America and Middle East and India or Asia areas. These are the areas to make a difference in… When I lived in Zimbabwe lots of the homes were built out of earth, structurally it can be done but erosion is still a problem.”, James Lymon, CEO of Mudbots, explained.

Shortly after James told me this I learned about the Asir Mountain Province of Saudi Arabia; a place with adobe buildings, but more importantly a natural and cheap solution to erosion. 

Slate rocks extrude from the walls and act as a watershed, preventing water from freely running down the surface and eroding it- giving the buildings an alluring facade, and expressing one of the most primitive and powerful forms of human ingenuity. 

The collaboration of ancient wisdom and sublime 21st-century technology leaves us standing at the precipice of a revolution – or as Rael calls it- The Mud Frontier.

*walk out music*

https://news.mit.edu/2023/roman-concrete-durability-lime-casts-0106

Many companies in the construction industry set to make great impact using this new technology- 3D printers for building homes. WOHN homes has a different dimension to this technology. Could we say this dimension is a new breakthrough for the 3D printing industry? The CEO of WOHN homes, Morten Bove fell in love with the technology behind 3D printed houses but not the concrete materials used. He mentioned in a recent episode of The Automate Construction Podcast (linked at the bottom) that the real motive of joining the construction industry was to solve the problem of social inequalities by building affordable homes; he also did not fail to mention that he had come a long way in other industries before coming into the construction industry.

WOHN Home deals with an alternative material, which is a special formula between waste plastics and wood fiber. A lot of testing was done before this formula was birthed. During the testing process, many waste plastics were used as a replacement for concrete but the structures always collapsed. The company’s ultimate motivation gave them the zeal to pursue the quest of finding an alternative material for 3D printing of affordable homes and, because of the large amount of waste plastics generated a year, they were certain that something had to come out of it.  They thought of how these waste plastics could be reinforced without the use of concrete; as they needed a material that would leave little or no carbon footprints since they saw the huge carbon footprints left when producing cement. This is one of the main issues with every traditional construction process, and the use of concrete during 3D printing does not solve this problem. That’s when the company had an idea to add wood fiber- sawdust as reinforcement, which made the material a whole lot stronger and better, and a lot of successful testing have been done using this new special formula. This innovation can cause a paradigm shift in the way homes are built and constructed.

3D Printers and the Special Formula.

WOHN homes is to be sold anywhere in the world; the company prints everything in the factory and doesn’t need to print on site. After many tests and operations carried out, the company redesigned the extruder they work with, and now use a robotic arm due to the thickness of the material been used. The robotic arms increases the stability of the rig and reduces vibration when compared to the gantry. WOHN Homes revealed that they will officially start commercialization by the end of summer 2023. One of the main dealers will be developers, who build homes in volumes in order for the company to make larger impact to the society. The company is certain that their decision to sell mostly to developers wouldn’t delay sales because they check off the boxes of sustainability, affordability and waste.

WOHN Homes The Future.

A WOHN home has a lifecycle of 50 to 60 years, after which the house can be recycled by adding fresher waste; depending on the number of recycling the plastics used for the buildings have undergone. The company has a method put in place for evaluating and testing the homes eligible for recycling using this criterion. The element of recycling a home gradually kicks out the culture in the society of ‘use it once and throw it away’. In using polymers and wood fiber as an alternate material for 3D printing constructions, nothing really goes to waste- the plastics that cannot be used due to number of times it has been recycled (which ideally is 7 times) can be used for landfill and burnt for fuel by other companies. A waste product of wood called wood wool is turned into pulp, fluffed up and blown into channels known as cores, is used as insulation; which also reduces the use of fossil fuel to make rock wall types of products that are considered as heavy carbon contributors in the world. WOHN digs into the escalating urbanization with 200,000 people moving to cities and urban surroundings every day. A trend so transformative to our present way of living, that it requires equally transformative concepts and thinking to handle it.

Discovering how economies of scale impact 3D printed houses has been one of the most highly anticipated aspects of the tech. I got the unique opportunity to visit the active construction site where Icon currently has 7 of their Vulcan concrete printers extruding their proprietary Lavacrete mix.

CEO Jason Ballard and I walked around brand new homes just starting their first layer all the way to the first home they printed which has already been turned over to Lennar for completion after printing. You can follow along our tour or listen to the podcast we did at the bottom of this article.

Icon is serving as the subcontractor for this Georgetown project at Wolf Ranch. They agreed to a fixed price $.01 below what the Lennar wall contractors would typically charge. This means the onus is on Icon to deliver the homes and even if the cost to them comes out higher in the end, Lennar will not be on the hook. Fixed construction contracts are rare these days and it is a testament to the confidence Icon has in their technology and team.

After printing, Icon has one responsibility left before the handover to Lennar for completion and thats attaching custom CNC routed wood to the top of the printed walls to which the roof trusses can be secured. This makes installing the roof a very typical process for Lennar and Icon is handling the challenge of joining the roof to the curvy shapes of the wall.

Most importantly we got an answer to the economies of scale question. Having a big project, big team and big partner helped drive down costs compared to one off printed homes or smaller developments. This is because the teams can be more specialized instead of having a 3-4 man crew for the whole process. Icon also gets more negotiating leverage with suppliers now that they have a big partner and bigger order quantities.

This 100 home project is huge, by far the biggest construction project in the 3DCP world at the moment but it’s still only the beginning. There are millions of homes to be built and Icon is working hard to build the machines that can scale to that many homes. This project is offering tremendous learning opportunities for Icon and Lennar, traditional construction intelligence still plays a big role in 3D printed construction projects and fine tuning the details will unlock further efficiencies making construction automation more competitive with time.

One more thing I have to mention is the data collection happening. I got a glimpse at Icons HUD of their project showing comprehensive data on all the active prints going on and the projects progression over the many days. Some of these infographics were developed in house others utilize Palantir tech and both were incredibly impressive, it really felt like the future of construction.

Want to help me put out more information on 3D printed construction and construction automation? Join the Automation Nation!