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Robotics

Robots Are Building Clay Homes In Texas Using Dirt From the Ground (kxan.com) 35

Posted by EditorDavid from the adobe-wall-maker dept.
A startup south of Austin is using robots to build homes out of clay pulled directly from the ground, reports a local news station: The materials are gathered on site, mixed, and placed on a build plate. From there, a robot lowers from above, picks up the clay with a claw, carries it to the wall and drops it into place. Later, the same robot switches tools, using a hammer attachment to pound the material into shape. "It's kind of trying to replicate how a human might build an adobe house," said software engineer Anastasia Nikoulina... Using machine learning, the system constantly evaluates the wall, adjusting how it builds to create a flat, solid surface...

The project is underway at Proto-Town, a ranch between Lockhart and Luling where startups test new technologies, from anti-drone systems to nuclear reactors. The company plans to build their next home on the property, with hopes to do more than 20 homes over the next year.

Robots Are Building Clay Homes In Texas Using Dirt From the Ground More | Reply

Robots Are Building Clay Homes In Texas Using Dirt From the Ground

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  • Why aren't adobe style homes common place in America, or globally, in 2006 or 2036?

    That these guys have developed an automated way of making impractical and undesirable homes in 2026 is... yawn.

    • Re:Yawn... (Score:5, Informative)

      by dfghjk ( 711126 ) on Sunday May 03, 2026 @05:22PM (#66126136)

      If only you asked Google that question instead of posting it here as a troll. Here's Google's answer:

      "Adobe-style homes are not common across America primarily due to high labor costs, lengthy construction times, and vulnerability to moisture, making them practical only in arid climates. Stick-frame construction (2x4s) is favored for its speed, affordability, and adaptability to varied climates."

      So, for suitable places, this appears to be an effort to directly solve a problem.

      Also, what would an adobe home be "undesirable", other than you're a dumbass?

      • I bet adobe bricks would be better if the clay/mud was enhanced & fortified with just enough Portland cement to make them resist water so they can handle rainy climates for half a century or longer, besides if the adobe mud/brick walls were covered with something like stucco or shotcrete they would be sealed against the weather

        • Building a home from on-site clay will exclude the lumber, cement, insulation, and transportation industries from profiting from your home.

          This is one of the reasons why adobe is not used in construction.

          Some states, Texas, have laws allowing adobe buildings which gets around the national building codes long-time (big business profit friendly) list of approved building materials.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by bn-7bc ( 909819 )
          I should probably not read these kind of threads in the morning i raead adobe and automatically thought about the sw comany and hearing them in connection with construction set all my alarm bells ringing. I don't want them involved with anything connected with construction ( well meby excepting the permensntbdigital storrage of the signed contracts ( pot digitally signed fot tracabukity) and analoge signature for regulatory compliance where the law has not caought up with tech). Why did adove steal a word f

      • what would an adobe home be "undesirable", other than you're a dumbass?

        Mostly the fact that they easily leak / crack / crumble. But if you have a robot that can just turn your home back into mud and build it again, then sure. Why not?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by HiThere ( 15173 )

        One way that they're undesirable is that it's lots harder to run new electric circuits after they have been built.

      • Re:Yawn... (Score:5, Funny)

        by Mspangler ( 770054 ) on Sunday May 03, 2026 @07:57PM (#66126282)

        Don't forget the earthquakes.

        However I must applaud them for using dirt from the ground. Dirt from the sky doesn't tends to be too fine grained. Dirt from the ocean is also substandard.

        • We have a fix for that, it's called earth bag. Or humorously, dirtbag :)

          You put soil approximately suitable for rammed earth into sacks and then place them in courses with barbed wire between them, which provides tensile strength. The soil mix can actually be a bit more variable than rammed earth because of the sacks. If you use plastic bags they can't rot. You stucco or otherwise similarly cover the result to protect it from weather.

          This tech lends itself to making both round and organic shapes. You can al

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by SeaFox ( 739806 )

        Also, what would an adobe home be "undesirable", other than you're a dumbass?

        Most people don't want to live in a house made of dirt. Besides perceived concerns about the durability of the structure itself, it's just a matter of public perception. Living in a house made of earthen materials brings to mind settlers in mud-brick homesteads. That's not the modern living folks want. Many people buy homes with the idea of it being an investment they will resell in the future. If people don't find your home desirable you'll have a harder time selling down the line and wont get as much in r

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by CAIMLAS ( 41445 )

        Adobe would be a good building material in about 30-50% of the US's landmass. That's substantial, when you consider how much of the US landmass is consumed by Alaska (16% total landmass). You could likely bump that up substantially with things like polymer exterior treatment/waterproofing, larger roof overhangs, and ground isolation.

        My FIL has an adobe house in Tucson. The walls are about 2.5" thick once you include the interior framing for things like electrical and sheetrock (which they used in that house

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Kisai ( 213879 )

      The only thing new here is that one could theoretically make like a series of MDU type units, where you have like 100 perfectly designed, shaped, structurally sound in a row. In practice, water and soil conditions are unlikely to make this viable anywhere that gets rain. Structure buildings need to be on bedrock, made out of solid rock, and the closest humans ever get to that is roman concrete. Adobe material is not 'packed dirt", it's clay. Clay is not just that stuff you buy in a store to make a crappy mu

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by HiThere ( 15173 )

        If they're really making adobe, rain won't be a problem. Adobe is fired. But if they're just unfired clay, then, yes, wet times would be a problem.

    • I just want my 40k hive cities.

  • I always wonder why giant legos never happened. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Fly Swatter ( 30498 ) on Sunday May 03, 2026 @05:57PM (#66126170) Homepage
    I mean, it's quick to build and if you use a fastener or adhesive they still stay down even in strong wind.

    No, obviously not actual legos, but a similar block type design that interlocks and offers more than just corner and straight pieces. An interlocking window or door frame could just be dropped in during the wall build.

    • This is a great idea. Most homes around the world are built with cinder blocks, not wood. If they were standardized to interlock the buildings would be stronger and cost less due to not needing much mortar, if any.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      Mostly because of the inflexibility - either you start having a ton of different bricks, or your designs start being rather cookie-cutter. More so because walls are infrastructure and now you need to have provisions for pipes, wires, and other things to go through them.

      Then there's the problem of concrete itself - it has poor heat resistance (low R value). Modern homes are built to R-20 minimum, you probably want R-30 or higher to keep your heating and cooling bills reasonable. This means having to lay on l

      • Aircrete has great R-Value and you can make it with dish soap and a food additive. IIRC it's Xanthan gum. You could put channels for wiring into the blocks. (You could even just cast conduit into them.) You can get a lot of different outcomes with a fairly small selection of lego blocks...

      • A block doesn't have to be concrete, it could be a composite that includes an exterior shell, structure, insulation, and an interior facing layout that includes channels that line up with other blocks for running utilities. Those utility channels are then covered after construction with larger interior wall panels that fasten in place - removable for utility maintenance, expansion, etc.

        We have all these modern materials and manufacturing methods, no need to just make a 'concrete block' anymore - remember

    • Giant Lego bricks did happen, at a slightly larger scale, over here in .nl. A few years ago, a concrete factory started making bricks of about 160 x 80 x 80 cm with 8 pyramids on top, and matching holes in the bottom. They did this initially with the leftovers that came back from building sites. These turned out to be ideal as roadblocks, for marking boundaries at building sites, building temporary walls etc.

  • Stuff like this seems inevitable to me, but various forms of 3d printing buildings whether out of concrete or other dirt+binder systems have been being experimented with for at least 10 years if not 20. Who knows if they'll ever achieve value parity with standard methods.

    Though "standard methods" aren't an entirely static target either. Like i was watching some pumped concrete building of a high-ish rise building in Miami some months back and, while not robotic... it certainly included a lot of labor sa

  • Advanced robots using AI-powered visual analysis and laser cutting tools to make plywood slum houses in 10x less time than a team of puny humans.

  • Continuous Sanbag Domes (Score:3)

    by bill_mcgonigle ( 4333 ) * on Sunday May 03, 2026 @07:52PM (#66126270) Homepage Journal

    The continuous sandbag dome systems are actually structurally and seismically stable. Good in desert climates, at least. They use local materials to coat the surfaces with stucco.

    It would be very amendable to automation.

    See here but many other videos on the Tubes too:

    https://www.ameripacific.com/c... [ameripacific.com]

  • They literally clad tract homes in glorified cardboard. Cardboard. I shit you not.
  • Than using dirt from the sky or people's navels.
  • Of course, it is really THE MIXING that should be done by robot, 'cause it's the daubbing part people would enjoy doing with their own hands!
  • You just need to add electricity, plumbing, and HVAC. It's a bargain.

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