At the end of October, Hilti introduced their new semi-autonomous ceiling drilling robot.
The Hilti Jaibot is remotely driven by an operator to the correct location, and once given the go-ahead, it will automatically drill all the holes within reach of the arm as marked by the building information modeling (BIM) data.
Jaibot’s robotic arm can extend to drill into ceilings from 8.5 to 16.5 feet tall and can drill holes from 3/16″ to 3/4″ in diameter. These are standard sizes for post-install Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing anchors.
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The Hilti Jaibot links with a dedicated project cloud to access the BIM data, and it uses this data to locate the holes it needs to drill. The Jaibot updates the project data as it works, so you can watch its progress back at the office.
The Jaibot will operate for up to 8 hours on its internal batteries and recharges in approximately 6 hours — if you plug it in at the end of the day it should be ready to work the next morning.
Even though Jaibot uses off-the-shelf components, such as a Hilti TE 6-A22 cordless rotary hammer and VC 75-1-A22 cordless vacuum, these components are modified to run off the Jaibot’s internal battery.
The Jaibot arrives on site in its own container that can be moved by a forklift or crane. When the Jaibot is in “transport mode” it measures less than 3 feet wide and 5.5 feet tall, fitting through most doorways and into most lifts or elevators.
Here’s what a typical day with Jaibot might look like. When it’s time to start working, the operator drives Jaibot out of its container where’s it’s been charging overnight, and over to the working area.
The operator pulls the PLT 300 total station out of a compartment on the Jaibot and sets up the auto leveling and auto-stationing features. The PLT 300 tracks the cylindrical prism on the Jaibot arm so that the system knows where the drill bit is, to an accuracy of 1/8″.
The operator follows a guided workflow on the screen of the remote control. Once set up, the operator raises the arm to the correct height and then clicks the ‘go’ button. Jaibot will then drill and mark all of the anchor locations within a 6-foot diameter.
Once the robot is finished, the operator can move the robot to a new location and repeat the process. If there is an issue with hitting rebar or other type of hole interference, the operator can skip the hole or move its location and the BIM gets updated over the cloud.
How much will this system cost? Hilti has no specific price set, but will base the cost on the needs of the customer and project. They claim the Jaibot will be “approximately cost-neutral vs. traditional post-install methods.” The savings to the customer will come in the form of improved productivity and safety.
The Jaibot should be available in 2021.
Discussion
This is Hilti’s first foray into robotics. Hilti says that the Jaibot system is modular, and although they won’t commit to answering any questions about what might be coming next, I am convinced that they are hard at work developing the next use.
The engineer in me loves seeing the reuse of parts in this complex system. The hardest working parts, the drill and vacuum, are off-the-shelf Hilti cordless power tools. What this means for the contractor is that replacements and parts for the tools are a phone call away if you don’t already have spares.
I can’t imagine drilling holes in concrete above my head for 8 hours a day – the strain on your body must be enormous, not to mention the safety issues of being on a ladder or scaffold and having to worry about kickback if the drill bit gets stuck. This robot eliminates all of those issues. The operator can remain safely on the ground while the robot does the heavy work.
Tom D says
Reminds me of these: https://www.husqvarnacp.com/us/machines/demolition-robots/
(And you could have saved 10% on one during Black Friday!)
Tom D says
(And yes, when I win the lottery I will have these prowl the borders of my lair)
Rob says
I mean, if you have a lair, you could put shells on them to make the lift end look like a scorpion’s tail. You’re one step away from a real-life Fallout scenario! I like the cut of your jib, sir.
John says
My new favorite multitool, although maybe not so much for EDC 🙂
Patrick says
Unless you become the EDC and have it carry you 🙂
Nathan says
so first thought golly gee that will save me the cost of 3-6 workers. great. followed by “dey took our jobs man” but alas political rot.
The other bits I see right off – doesn’t require the osha issues if I recall correctly. Since a person isn’t within 10 ft of the drilling or holding the dril – etc etc. no dust collection is necessary at the point of drilling. Now I can have a cheap unskilled person sweep up the floor after the robot drilled it yesterday.
Next bit – safey as was mentioned above. Followed by MX – hey when the drill dies get an of the shelf __________ and replace it. great ideas there.
It’s an interesting idea and I’ve wondered just how long it was going to be before you see this on small and smaller jobsites. IE how far of s stretch is it to have a drywall robot – holds a full sheet in place – stakes the screws by auto feed screw gun model ________. . . . . .
Great find interesting sets of ideas. Not so sure I like it but I see why it’s been made.
James C says
Having a hard time not reading that as “jailbot.” I don’t want to know what that would be.
MrS85 says
Same robot, but a different, far darker task . . .
Benjamen says
Yeah, the name seems awkward to me. So Hilti was founded and is still headquartered in Liechtenstein, which speaks German. “Jai” is yes or yeah in German.
YesBot? YeahBot?
I’m a little disturbed.
Maybe it’s an acronym too, that they though was clever because it spells JAI.
Peter says
As a native German speaker, not sure if they put a local twist on that in Lichtenstein, I never heard Jai used as yes only Ja.
My guess is maybe that they used the german word Ja, shortened the word robot and for some reason 😉 some companies put an I before words so that is how they came up with JaIbot.
But again that is just a guess.
Benjamen says
I’m nowhere near a native speaker, but I remember enough from high school German that “Ja” is yes, I put “Jai” into google translate and was surprised that it said it translated to “yeah”
Maybe it’s like playing Scrabble. I’d like to think I’m a pretty well versed English speaker, but am constantly surprised by what is considered a word :>)
They are pronouncing it JAY-bot and not Ya-bot or Yeah-bot. So I may be way off base with my guess.
Peter says
I use leo to translate and that was at a loss with jai.
The only thing I could find is that Jai is hindi for victory or a ball game.
PETE says
So it uses BIM meaning you need the Hilti PLT 300 LAYOUT SYSTEM which alone costs $23,169.00 which likely is rolled into the cost of the JAIBOT.
Benjamen says
That’s interesting to know. Is that a one time purchase, per year license, or combination (one time equipment, yearly license)?
It seems another case of: if you have to ask, you can’t afford it.
Tom D says
That’s the equipment, I think you need to add PROFIS Layout Office PRO Subscription #2117533 to it – $1200/yr.
If it works well $100/mo is nothing.
Nathan says
thanks I was trying to look that up – figured you’d need propriety software license agreement to use the nifty bot.
I also be you have no right to repair said bot either since it’s EU sourced
Jim says
All of our work here in the SF Bay Area is with union craft labor. I do not see this happening on these jobs until hilti somehow get buy in from the local trade councils.
Bim is great, but unless its got a built in scanner someone is going to have to go up in a lift and scan the areas first to make sure there is not any that is not supposed to be there first.
PETE says
I didn’t think about that…. I wonder if the bot would have sensors to not run into anything. Or maybe the bots babysitter would have to drive the bot within 1′ of the drill area and the bot would position itself to get the correct spot.
Kentucky fan says
Pretty soon we will all be redundant.
Plain grainy says
I wonder if my dentist knows about this?
Peter says
lol
Ray says
I will leave this here. https://www.wired.com/story/robots-invade-construction-site/