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 …
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I, House
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 …
Every 3D Printed Airbnb Home
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 …
Opinion: The only true failure at Icon 3D is their PR
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, …
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World of Concrete 2025
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 …
Breaking New Ground – Evan Maindonald, GP of Hyperlight Ventures
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 …
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Every Humanoid Robot 2024
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 …
3D Printing Concrete Directly From Mixer Truck
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 …
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Automate Construction Power Ranking 2024
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 …
Zacua Ventures Construction Robotics Market Map
The construction industry is a very large industry, yet it has remained laggard in terms of innovation and automation. Zacua Ventures is a global early-stage venture fund tackling world’s biggest challenges across Sustainability, Productivity and Urbanization and backed by the most innovative corporates in the built world. Zacua is led by partners with more than …
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Botbuilt: Framing Robots Automating Construction
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 …
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Mud Frontier
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 …
Fannie Mae Includes 3D Printed Homes in Latest Selling Guide
The biggest news is that they determined 3d printed homes fall in line with any other form of construction. Has 3D printed construction gone mainstream? Is this a responsible choice? Check out the official Selling Guide Announcement https://singlefamily.fanniemae.com/media/36766/display This will certainly enable many projects which were previously stuck on the back-burner but I am not …
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The DFAB House: Digitizing Construction
Swiss Plateau region, Dübendorf, Switzerland “researchers from eight ETH Zurich professorships have come together with industry experts and planning professionals in a unique way to explore and test how digital fabrication can change the way we design and build.” – DFAB House The construction industry ranks among the least digitized sectors globally. In the United …
Is our intelligence just as artificial as A.I.? A reflection on ConTech as we begin to look toward A.I.
Cruising without a care in the world knowing that this drive, like every drive, will be interruption-free, with no traffic lights to stop, no unexpected congestion, simply you getting into your connected vehicle. Your car is not autonomous yet and the US infrastructure is still subpar to that which allows das autobahn to lift its …
Automating Welding in Construction
WIELDING: THE NEED FOR AUTOMATION Over 500,000 workers are exposed to health and safety risks due to the hazardous nature of welding each year in the United States of America alone, one can only imagine the numbers when looked at on a global scale. These risks include overexposure to welding fumes and gases, which can …
COBOD Recent Completed Projects
According to the World Economic Forum, the housing gap will be 1.6 billion by 2025, and our existing operating model does not provide a solution. The global building and construction industry is facing significant problems. We are unable to keep up with demand, which inhibits global economic growth. COBOD’s mission is to build a better …
CyBe First Printed Home Stateside
CyBe Construction was established in 2012 by the founder and CEO Berry Hendriks. CyBe has developed hardware, software, building materials, and learning platforms, it is one of the leaders in this construction industry and has a motto to “learn by doing”. Unlike most 3D printing companies, one can say that the CEO and founder of …
ETH Zurich & Research in Construction Automation
3D printing is a rapidly growing technology that often captures significant hype and attention. Researchers study this technology to determine its sustainability and potential applications. By educating the public with facts and real-life examples, they make it easier to understand the positive and negative effects of this emerging field. In the construction industry, 3D printing …
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A Leader in On Site Automation Has Emerged
Diamond Age: MAKING IMPACT The process of building houses hasn’t changed much in the last 100 years. Like many other 3D startups, Diamond Age set out to solve the problem of housing, but with a fresh spin on 3D printing technology. Co-founders Jack Oslan and Russell Varone identified the housing problem and came up with …
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MICOB Printing Indian Military Structures
MiCob private limited is a 3D printing company in India whose primary clients are the India defense military. They provide customized 3D Concrete Printing solution for various sectors like Infrastructure, Housing, Architecture, Outdoor furniture, etc. which is backed by years of research. Just like most 3D printing companies, the founders of MICOB- Ankita Sinha, Rishabh …
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WOHN Homes 3D Printing Wooden Living Spaces
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 …
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Icon 3D Printing 100 Homes with Lennar near Austin, Tx
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 …
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10,000 Sqft 3D Printed Building
Printed Farms is at it again in Wellington Florida, you may recall the printed garage they built which I filmed on site very early on. Since then they printed a house in Tallahassee as well which I have also filmed extensively with the contractor from the job, precision builders. Now Printed Farms is onto their …
Autonomously Constructed Homes For Sale by Diamond Age
Diamond Age wants to automate construction and they have been doing a pretty solid job so far! Earlier this year they announced 27 tools which will be utilized by an on site construction gantry system. So far 8/27 tools have been developed in a beta stage including a detachable concrete printing extruder head. This all …
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Texas Startup Prints Regular Concrete
Andrey Rudenko is back! The same man who brought you the famous 3D printed castle pictured below has teamed up with Timothy Lankau, CEO of Hive 3D in Texas to print a residential structure utilizing standard portland cement from the local store. The ability to use a standard cement mix without having to ship in …
Emergent 3D Printed First Home in CA, How Much Did It Cost?
Everyone knows California is one of the most challenging markets for construction. The rules are strict, taxes are high and everything is wildly expensive. A quick google search will tell you the average construction cost in CA is $400-$600 a sqft in 2022 (modular coming in at $200-$300). 3D printed construction startup Emergent 3D was …
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Icon Beginning Largest 3DCP Housing Community With Lennar
Icon and Lennar just announced they are moving forward with the largest community of 3D printed homes on the planet! The homes in Georgetown north of Austin, Tx will start around $400k. Unlike Icons other homes these feature substantial interior printed walls. Each one will range from 1,574 to 2,112 sqft. I am in touch …
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How long does it take to 3D print a house?
General Construction Stats & Sources 9/10 cost overrun http://www.ijimt.org/vol8/717-MP0022.pdf Over 3 years only 10% came within 10% of budget Large projects 20% longer to finish, Mckinsey study shows construction productivity declining since the 90’s https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/capital-projects-and-infrastructure/our-insights/imagining-constructions-digital-future Poor communication leads to 1/3rd issues https://info.coreworx.com/blog/pmi-study-reveals-poor-communication-leads-to-project-failure-one-third-of-the-time Productivity changes could save 1.63 trillion/ year https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/capital-projects-and-infrastructure/our-insights/infrastructure-productivity HOW LONG DOES A 3D …
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3D Printed Concrete Recipe
Written by Howard Stone We have now seen many 3D architectural printing projects and one thing that many of them have in common is the cement based mix they print with.There are many materials that can be used in 3D printing but Portland cement is an easily engineered common product available world wide. So, just …