Promise Robotics partners with DR Horton on physical AI for home construction

The construction industry is fragmented and has been relatively conservative about adopting new technologies, but physical AI promises to modernize housing. Today, Promise Robotics said it has signed a multi-year agreement with DR Horton, which will use its Factory-as-a-Service capabilities to produce more than 1,250 homes in the United States

“Residential construction has long lacked the manufacturing infrastructure needed to adapt to the speed, predictability and efficiency of modern manufacturing,” said Ramtin Attar, co-founder and CEO of Promise Robotics. “Physical AI changes that by creating a new manufacturing model that can expand capacity within and across markets. Our goal is to make that capacity accessible to manufacturers across North America and support the industry’s long-term growth.”

“We founded the company with the core thesis that homebuilding robotics needed a very different approach and technology stack,” he said The robot report. “We started with mechanical and HVAC and built the physical AI infrastructure for building component manufacturing.”

Founded in 2021, Promise Robotics said it has integrated robotics, artificial intelligence, software and manufacturing systems to connect the homebuilding workflow, from design translation and production planning through automated manufacturing and on-site installation. The Toronto-based company said its Factory-as-a-Service (FaaS) model allows homebuilders to access advanced manufacturing infrastructure without the cost, complexity or risk of developing and managing it themselves.

Construction needs to be more repeatable

As construction companies face persistent real estate demand, labor shortages, rising costs and pressure to increase production, they are looking for more repeatable and scalable ways to expand production, Promise Robotics said.

“Unlike traditional manufacturing, especially automotive, where five or six large players operate, the construction sector is large but fragmented,” explains Ramtar. “The residential construction workforce is also highly fragmented between land management businesses, consumer homes and seasonal trades. It does not invest in the workforce in the same way as traditional manufacturing.”

“There is no such thing as manufacturing, where the same machine is built millions of times with small variations,” he added. “Even in the same house, every floor or wall is different. The distances, components and layout are different.”

“To address this set of technical and business challenges, we take a distributed manufacturing approach,” Ramtar said. “Microfactories are a good problem for AI to solve, and we have spent years developing the fundamental model and systems related to construction.”

The software offers flexibility and scalability, Promise Robotics says

Promise Robotics manages this variability and resilience with software that understands the limits of what is possible, in terms of movement, building materials and tools, Ramtar noted.

The company’s software can improve over time, allowing for a reduction in expenses. It is currently working with its own cloud-based simulations and KUKA industrial robotic arms, but is robot-agnostic, he said.

“We have a pretty deep technology stack, incorporating computer vision and LLM [large language models] for the initial preparation of data flows and a domain-specific reasoning model,” Ramtar said. “For every house we build, we produce 300 new images, 5,000 new tactile sources and many processes. We are very data rich and that is why we present ourselves as a physical AI infrastructure and not just as a technology.”

“Our floors are 45 feet and the walls are 20 feet,” he explained. “The walls have windows and doors. We are also producing ladders that can be inserted for quick assembly. Our sweet spot is terraced houses between three and four stories. Higher than that, and there is more need for sprinklers, reinforcements and metalwork.”

The company can build a two-story duplex, basement and garage in one day, not including electronics, window installations and plumbing. This process typically takes two to three weeks, Ramtar said.

Promise Robotics integrates construction workflows with FaaS

Promise Robotics said its technology interprets existing home designs, generates production plans and robotic instructions, orchestrates production, and connects that production with on-site installation. Instead of automating isolated tasks, the company said it brings these capabilities together in a single integrated environment.

“FaaS offers a broad range of home builders in all geographies access to an integrated manufacturing platform,” Promise Robotics said. The FaaS model can help builders improve cycle times, increase capacity and adapt more predictably to communities and markets, he added.

“Even though every house we build is different, the process is the same: managing the files, translating them into robotic instructions,” Ramtar said. “Robots are trained to build with highly variable components. We need to be able to support many different types of builders and different types of products. We are building everything from single units to multiple units, to duplexes and fourplexes, townhouses, etc. And it’s never the same.”

Promise Robotics is setting up its first FaaS facilities in Edmonton and Calgary, Canada, and in Phoenix. Its own crews operate the systems for a tight feedback loop, Ramtar said.

Promise Robotics’ core technology includes attachment algorithms and can be set to comply with local building codes on aspects such as spacing. “Unlike the harsh Canadian environment, Phoenix required 50% fewer tarps and different reinforcements,” Ramtar said. “Our system is built to adapt to different markets and generalize through artificial intelligence.”

DR Horton will help automation reach the US market

The company noted that the US market represents the largest opportunity to apply its model at scale. DR Horton, America’s largest homebuilder by volume, is the first major U.S. homebuilder to use Promise Robotics’ platform.

“At DR Horton, we are always looking for innovations that can help us improve the way we build. We are constantly focused on improving cycle times, increasing production capacity and bringing greater consistency and predictability to our operations,” said Brad Conlon, senior vice president of strategic growth and innovation at DR Horton. “Promise Robotics‘integrated platform gives us a new capability to support these goals.”

“This is just the starting point,” Ramtar said. “We have to earn each customer’s trust and really take action. We appreciate customers taking a leap with us, but with every homebuilder, we say, ‘You can buy as much capacity as you want,’ and we provide them with a path to adapt it to many parts of the market.”

Promise Robotics is not a vertically integrated developer or home designer like Reframe Systems, Ramtar acknowledged. “We are more about advances in robotics and are here to grow when companies need to grow,” he said.