A Canadian company and its team of robots aim to enter the U.S. market with the promise of saving time, cutting costs, and addressing labor shortages for high-volume home builders.

Toronto-based Promise Robotics is targeting several U.S. markets—including Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Nashville, and Phoenix—to set up factories where AI-powered robots similar to the ones operated by automakers would produce key home building components, including walls, stairs, and floors.

Ramtin Attar, the company’s co-founder and CEO, stated that Promise Robotics will establish a robot-equipped plant ranging from 50,000 to 60,000 square feet in each U.S. market where it operates. As a result, no Canadian-made products will be shipped to the U.S., thereby avoiding any tariffs. Each factory, staffed by four to six robotic workers along with human employees, will be able to serve several high-volume builders within approximately a two-hour travel radius.

Promise Robotics’ technology aims to shake up the currently “fragmented” home building process. A Promise Robotics factory can take on about 15% to 30% of the work involved in building a home, he said, with the rest of the work—like installing kitchen cabinets, bathroom fixtures, and bedroom carpeting—still being carried out traditionally.

“We basically tell a home builder that you’re able to double your capacity, not your overhead, and build 60% faster,” said Attar.

Promise Robotics reported in October 2023 that it collected $15 million in venture capital, bringing its fundraising total to $25 million. Investors include Horizons Ventures, Radical Ventures, Canada’s Public Sector Pension Investment Board, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, Relay Ventures, Alate Partners, and Sustainable Development Technology Canada.

Attar said his company plans to launch U.S. operations in 2026. Promise Robotics is in talks with several high-volume home builders in the U.S. about signing up for its “home building factory-as-a-service” platform. The platform produces a fully framed and locked-up house with windows, doors, and mechanical, electrical and plumbing rough-ins.

Builders will be invited to invest in local factories through profit-sharing deals, Attar said.

The company already operates a factory in Edmonton, Canada, and just announced it will open a 60,000-square-foot facility this summer in Calgary, Canada. Promise Robotics says the Calgary factory will be able to produce as much as 1 million square feet of housing per year. That pace would equate to 500 traditional 2,000-square-foot homes in a year’s time.

Attar said the robotic manufacturing process can be applied to conventional homes, townhomes, duplexes, and other types of housing.

Promise Robotics, founded in 2020, explains that its robots—driven by the company’s proprietary Big Brain AI software—interpret builders’ blueprints to create machine-precision components such as walls, floors, and stairs. Those components are then assembled at builders’ homesites.

Attar said the company’s tool-outfitted robots focus on lumber-based construction. However, the company is receiving requests to incorporate cold-rolled steel for construction of commercial buildings.

For a typical single-family, two-story home, it can take about eight hours for four robots to manufacture components (including floors, walls and stairs) and another six hours to assemble the components at a homesite, Promise Robotics says. This process can reduce a builder’s cycle times by 60%, and save roughly $350 per day during a six-week build. So, over that six-week span, those savings could approach $15,000.

A Promise Robotics factory can also pre-install features such as HVAC and plumbing systems.

Aside from producing components for new homes, Attar said Promise Robotics can work directly with a builder’s suppliers to source various materials, and can even train a builder’s crews on assembly techniques or provide on-site installation teams.

“As long as you’re bringing demand, you don’t have to worry about a thing. We have that entire product flow worked out as one package, but we are happy to work with your existing supply chain. So, if you already have trades and manufacturers that you’re working with, we’re happy to chat with them about joint venturing and partnering.”

Source: builderonline.com