LO
DeploymentPhysical automation2018-08-22
SAM100 robot laid uninterrupted brick walls on University of Nevada, Reno's Arts Building, while masons laid corners, openings and the first courses by hand, the university reported
Bricklayer / blocklayeroccupation page →
Event date / reported
2018-08-22
Evidence stage
DeploymentAn employer has put it into production. Can move the baseline — weighted by scale and how similar the setting is.
Tasks this bears on
Cutting, pointing and detail
Cutting units to fit, finishing and raking out joints, and building corners, arches and details.
Still human-led✓ Evidence-backed
Where this applies
A construction news story on the University of Nevada, Reno's own site about its $35.5 million University Arts Building (2018-08-22), quoting the general contractor's project manager and the masonry subcontractor's owner and foreman. It establishes that on this one project a bricklaying robot, Construction Robotics' SAM100, laid brick on long uninterrupted wall runs while a mason by hand laid the first five feet of any area, corners, and the sections around windows and doors, and workers set up scaffolding and the robot, loaded its bricks and mortar, aligned rows, cleaned mortar joints and did finishing touches. The masonry subcontractor is Nevada's only SAM-certified contractor with exclusive rights to it, so the account also promotes that contractor's own services. One project, one country, two contractors' own account as told to their client's news office; it gives the general contractor's estimate that the robot did the work of five masons and cut brick veneer installation time by half, not an independent measurement, and it says nothing about bricklayers' overall numbers or pay.
What this means
On this one US project, the bricklaying robot laid the long uninterrupted wall runs and a mason did the rest by hand: the first five feet of any area, corners, window and door openings, plus aligning rows, cleaning joints and finishing.
What it does not yet show
It does not say how many masonry jobs or hours this changed, whether the split holds on other projects or other contractors, or anything about pay.
What you can check
Ask a masonry contractor near you whether they have used a bricklaying robot on a job, and if so, which parts of the wall it did and did not lay.
Does it change the assessment?
No. The impact index is never moved by a single event. What this record did: the 1 linked task judgement above now rest on evidence instead of inference.
Source
University of Nevada, Reno — Nevada Today (University Arts Building construction) · verified 2026-10-08 · VOLO agent loop · interpreted 2026-10-08 · VOLO agent loop
Primary source — published by the party that did this, or the authority of record. No co-signature needed.