Robots to Reclaim Lumber: Bringing Circularity to the Construction Industry with Andrew Gillies from Urban Machine

Hardware to Save a Planet · 28 Sept 2023 · 44m · Episode 36

What this episode covers

Andrew Gillies, Co-Founder and CTO of Urban Machine, explains how his company uses robotics to reclaim wood waste from construction and demolition sites, converting it into premium lumber. He details the engineering challenges of handling fastener-covered timber, including the design of a perception stack, specialized end-effectors, and a 'starfish' roller conveyance system. Gillies also discusses the company's mobile operating model, the economic drivers of construction waste, and the massive market opportunity for circular lumber.

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

  • How I Built This · 32m

    When robots recycle with Matanya Horowitz of AMP Robotics

    Matanya Horowitz, founder and CEO of AMP Robotics, explains how his company uses AI and robotics to automate waste sorting, a sector where only about 35% of US waste is currently recycled. Horowitz details the transition from using mechanical claws to vacuum-based systems to handle sticky contaminants like dried milk, and discusses the economic challenges of making recycling profitable by lowering sorting costs below the value of the recovered commodities. He also describes AMP's strategy of selling robots to existing facilities while building its own green-field recycling plants to demonstrate the technology's potential and drive industry reshoring.

  • Robot Talk · 31m

    Episode 150: House building robots - Vikas Enti

    Vikas Enti, co-founder and CEO of Reframe Systems, explains how his company uses robotic microfactories and a software platform called 'Pixels to Parts' to mass-customize climate-resilient homes. He details the shift from traditional on-site construction to localized fabrication, highlighting the use of industrial robotic arms for framing and the integration of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) for material handling. Enti discusses the economic and environmental benefits of this approach, including reduced concrete usage, lower costs for missing middle housing, and faster production cycles compared to manual methods.

  • The Robot Report Podcast · 1h 12m

    Inside Glacier's Mission to Modernize Recycling

    Rebecca Hu-Thrams, CEO and co-founder of Glacier, explains how Glacier Robotics builds custom gantry robots to automate material recovery facilities (MURFs), addressing the challenge of sorting diverse, contaminated waste streams with high precision and uptime. She details the company's strategic partnerships with major brands like Amazon and Colgate-Palmolive to use AI data for better packaging design, and highlights their focus on achieving sub-12-month payback periods for recycling facilities. The episode also covers news from Parallax Worlds, which raised $4 million for digital twin simulation, and discusses the broader robotics industry trends including Physical Intelligence's funding and Agile Robots' industrial humanoids.

  • Robot Talk · 23m

    Episode 100: Robots in space - Mini Rai

    Mini Rai, founding Director of Orbit Rise and former Global Chair in Robotic Engineering at the University of Lincoln, discusses the challenges and future of orbital and planetary robotics. She details the harsh environment of space, including radiation and thermal extremes, and explains how Orbit Rise is developing autonomous robots for active debris removal and in-orbit recycling to support a circular space economy. Rai also highlights the technology transfer between space robotics and nuclear decommissioning, specifically applying walking robotic manipulator concepts to fusion reactor maintenance.

  • Robot Talk · 21m

    Episode Thirty-Two: Mollie Claypool

    Mollie Claypool, CEO and co-founder of Automated Architecture, explains how her company uses robotic assembly of timber blocks to build zero-carbon homes through community-embedded microfactories. She details the technical approach of using a single modular block to create diverse housing types, achieving 80 tons of CO2 removal per house, while addressing the UK's labor shortages and high insurance liabilities. Claypool discusses the social imperative of designing automation to empower communities and reskill manual trades, contrasting their agile system with expensive, large-scale modular factories.

The summary, chapters and topics are generated from the episode’s audio by this directory, not written by Hardware to Save a Planet. The episode itself belongs to its publisher.