Bay Area company is automating home construction with mobile robotic factories

By Kenny Choi

A San Francisco-based company is building homes using an automated mobile micro-factory, which it says will be the future of home-building.

In Santa Rosa, Cosmic Buildings is constructing Prasanna Vasudavan’s new home.

“This is my first ever time exploring this aspect of home building,” said Vasudavan. 

He recently bought the parcel of land in a burn-scarred area of Santa Rosa, ravaged by the 2017 Tubbs Fire. Vasudavan said he began researching how long it would take to build a fire-resistant house. 

“The average timeframe that I used to get is anywhere from one year to three years, and I didn’t have that much leeway,” said Vasudavan. 

To do that, he is working with Cosmic Buildings.

The company says it ships its “AI-driven Mobile Robotic factories” to the site of the future home, and it takes what’s designed and constructs the framing, floors and roof panels on location. This panelized-building method provides more flexibility than modular construction and is able to adapt to “unique site conditions,” according to Cosmic.

“This is the present and the future of home building,” said Sasha Jokic, CEO and founder.

Almost a third of Vasudavan’s home has been built using robotic technology. Add what Jokic calls “plug and play components,” like a kitchen and bath, “to be completed on site,” and half the home will have been built by “automation.”

“What we at Cosmic are building is this concept of automated design and pre-construction, paired with mobile, fully automated, and low-cost robotics,” said Jokic. 

“I’ve seen other videos of robots being able to do things. But I was just impressed by the build quality on it,” said Vasudavan. 

An analysis by the National Association of Home Builders estimates tens of thousands of homes aren’t being completed because there aren’t enough workers.  

“The construction industry has been battling the issue with the labor shortage for decades. Right now, there’s a demand of building nine million homes in the U.S. in order to fill the gap in the housing market. We don’t have people to build those homes,” said Jokic. 

For Vasudavan, his “prefab-custom home” is becoming a reality faster than he thought it would. 

“What you’re seeing here is a dream home. I’ve been wanting to build something from scratch, from the ground up, and I’ve been able to make this come true,” said Vasudavan. 

He’s hoping to see a finished product in six months and said he believes he’s saving a few hundred thousand dollars using robots to build his future home. 

The National Association of Home Builders says the impact of AI on the industry is limited for now but is likely to evolve in the coming years.

The company is also doing fire rebuilds in Los Angeles. Currently, it is in the process of building 20 to 25 homes, including in the Palisades and Eaton wildfire zones, Jokic said. The company has pledged to build one home for underinsured families for every 10 homes built in Los Angeles.

Cosmic said the Santa Rosa home is the first single-family home being built using its AI technology.