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Robots already transfer digital geometry onto floors: printing wall lines, marking openings and placing points and labels. Similar results can rely on different measuring systems, marking techniques and service models.
This overview covers five solutions as a starting point, plus another project with published pilot materials. It is an open selection that can be expanded. Descriptions rely on the companies’ own materials; engineering notes explain which differences matter on site.
START WITH THE GENERAL PRINCIPLEHow mechanized layout works ↗How the approaches differ
Three useful questions are how the robot determines its position, who prepares and performs the task, and what the construction team receives.
| Solution | Localization | Work organization | Main focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dusty RoboticsFieldPrinter 2 | Leica laser tracker | Robot, tracker and proprietary preparation and control software | Detailed construction layout from digital data |
| HPSitePrint | Compatible robotic total station | Equipment package and digital workflow | Printing prepared CAD geometry on site |
| Rugged RoboticsLayout service | Onboard localization and site reference targets | Layout as a service with a dedicated field team | Delivering completed layout to the customer |
| August RoboticsLionel | Proprietary system; registration details need clarification | Service, rental or purchase, subject to the company’s offering | Exhibitions, industrial installations and construction |
| BIMPRINTERBIMPRINTER | Robotic total station | A full preparation, marking and verification workflow is described | Paint marking combined with laser engraving |
Equipment packages, contractual terms and availability in a particular country require separate confirmation. The table illustrates different approaches.
FieldPrinter 2
Layout as part of a digital platform
Dusty describes FieldPrint as a system combining a mobile printer, Leica laser tracker, communications equipment and proprietary software. Prepared tasks pass through Dusty Portal, and the operator controls the robot through an iPad app. The company describes printing lines, arcs, points, text and other symbols from digital data. [1]
The external tracker measures the position of a reflector mounted on the robot. The specifications list supported Leica instruments and control point requirements for setup. The robot therefore operates within a measurement system tied to the design, rather than merely moving through its own room map. [2]
What to assess. How files and revisions will be managed, where the tracker can be placed and how to check consistency between setups when moving across work areas. These are whole-system questions that extend beyond the printing robot itself.
SitePrint
Robot and robotic total station
HP describes the following sequence: prepare a 2D CAD task, set up the total station using control points, lock onto the robot reflector and print. Specific Leica, Topcon and Trimble models are listed as compatible. Compatibility needs checking for the exact instrument model and required configuration. [3]
SitePrint can mark lines, text, arcs and points. It is controlled through a dashboard accessed from a browser-equipped device. Different inks are available for different surfaces and tasks. [4]
HP’s UK product page also describes a pay-as-you-go model. Project costing needs to establish the equipment package, usage charges and servicing, rather than relying solely on an assumed robot purchase price. [3]
What to assess. Whether an existing total station is suitable, who prepares the drawing and how reflector visibility can be maintained within the particular layout. Familiarity with a surveying instrument is useful, but does not replace learning the complete layout workflow.
Layout as a service
From customer files to completed site marks
Rugged emphasizes a full-service approach. The customer supplies digital data, and the company describes preparing it, deploying its team, setting up equipment and performing layout. The customer deals with a service provider, while Rugged’s team organizes robot operation in the field. [5]
The company’s technical guide describes onboard localization using site reference targets. Its workflow description separately mentions checking control coordinates and establishing a target network. This differs from continuously tracking the robot with a single external total station, although a connection to site coordinates is still necessary. [6] [5]
What to assess. The task supplied, site preparation, responsibility boundaries and acceptance procedure. For a service, agreed deliverables are particularly important: what was marked, how revisions were handled and how quality is verified.
Lionel
From exhibition halls to industrial sites
August’s materials show Lionel spraying paint to mark stand corners, numbers, rigging points and electrical symbols. The company also describes browser-based control and removable paint. [7]
Construction and industrial use are presented separately. Built Ready lists commercial construction, data centres, warehouses and industrial installations. The Industrial Layout page describes multiple robots working within a common system and service, rental or purchase options. [9] [8]
The presentation materials reviewed do not explain survey registration in sufficient detail for direct comparison with a total station and reflector system. They do not provide enough information to confidently reconstruct the measurement architecture or the workflow within the building’s accepted survey control framework.
What to assess. Whether the specific system version suits the intended construction task. Exhibition stand placement, warehouse equipment installation and interior partition layout can impose different requirements for registration, paint durability and acceptance.
BIMPRINTER
Survey registration and combined marking methods
BIMPRINTER describes a system with a robotic total station, an external control device and proprietary software. Its marking description combines fluorescent paint and laser engraving. Autonomous and semi-autonomous modes are listed. [10]
The workflow page describes preparing IFC and DWG inputs: cleaning the plan, removing duplicates and creating a motion task. Registration to site coordinates, marking and verification follow. Checking joins between work areas when several machines operate in parallel is described separately. [11]
What to assess. What remains on the surface, how readable it is during the specific works and how its coordinates are verified. Consistency between adjoining areas matters whether several robots work in parallel or one system is moved between setups.
The market extends beyond this selection
PUBLISHED PILOT MATERIALSCOROSOLS is another project worth following. On its website, the Moroccan team describes robot layout using mecanum wheels and a robotic total station, BIM data preparation and reports. Materials identified as a pilot-site demonstration are also available. [12]
Such publications help explain a technical approach. Assessing commercial maturity additionally requires the number and nature of completed jobs, repeatability, equipment availability and service support. A single demonstration and a regularly delivered service provide different levels of evidence.
An expanded overview should also distinguish mobile floor printing, individual point marking and laser projection of drawings. They may address similar tasks, but leave different results on site and require different arrangements for subsequent work.
Reading accuracy and speed figures
It is easy to put several millimetre figures side by side in a marketing table. Engineering comparison requires knowing what was measured, against which control reference, at what distance, with which equipment and by which method.
- Dusty: the survey control condition. The FP2 specification states ±1/16 inch, approximately ±1.6 mm. The printing description separately stipulates accurate survey control. That condition is part of the specification. [2]
- HP: a particular configuration and distance. On the SitePrint page, ±2 mm is accompanied by a high-accuracy setup note: a spherical SMR prism, the corresponding printing mode, a 1″ angular-accuracy total station and a distance of 5–30 m. The note uses the wording “on average”. Applying this figure to every configuration and distance would be incorrect. [3]
- August: compare the applications. The Lionel page states ±5 mm for the listed mark types, while the industrial application page mentions 1/8 inch, approximately 3.2 mm. Before comparison, establish the system version, task and method to which each figure applies. [7] [8]
Speed is also expressed in different ways: metres of line per second, individual marks per hour or time to complete a particular task. Floor area without layout density says little about workload. The same area may require a few axes or a detailed plan with labels and many building services points.
What to establish before using a system on site
Instead of asking which robot is best in general, define your own task. The differences between systems then become concrete.
- What needs to remain on the floor? Continuous wall faces, individual points, text or symbols? How important are line width, colour and durability?
- How is the system tied to survey control? How are the design and robot tied to the building’s common coordinates? Which points, targets and instruments are required, who checks their coordinates and how are transitions between areas verified?
- Who prepares the task? Which formats does the system accept, who cleans the geometry, agrees the layers and takes responsibility for the current revision?
- Which conditions are permitted? Surface condition, obstacles, sight lines, inaccessible areas and concurrent work by other trades.
- How is the result accepted? What does the report include, how is coordinate accuracy verified, what counts as a completed task and how are omissions recorded?
- Who operates and supports the system? An in-house team, rented equipment or a contractor’s service? What is included in training, support, consumables and maintenance?
- What does a completed task cost? Account for equipment, software, consumables, preparation, transport, specialist labour and verification under the specific offering.
Selection starts with the required result and site conditions. Instruments, robot, software and team must provide a coherent workflow from agreed data to verified layout.
fieldBIM is developing its own prototype. This overview is based on companies’ publicly available materials and is not a report of our comparative equipment tests.
Access to equipment, software and servicing requires separate consideration. Why Russia needs its own layout technology ↗
Company materials
Factual system descriptions were checked against primary sources. Selection and verification notes are fieldBIM’s engineering analysis.
- Dusty Robotics: the FieldPrinter system Platform components and workflow.
- Dusty Robotics: FieldPrinter 2 specifications Positioning, printing capabilities and stated accuracy conditions.
- HP SitePrint: system and workflow CAD preparation, total stations, payment model and accuracy notes.
- HP SitePrint: frequently asked questions Printable elements and equipment operation.
- Rugged Robotics: Full-Service Layout Data preparation, team deployment and layout delivery.
- Rugged Robotics: Construction Layout Robot Guide Onboard localization, site references and conditions of use.
- August Robotics: Lionel Mark types, paint spraying and exhibition use examples.
- August Robotics: Industrial Layout Industrial applications, multiple robots and available delivery models.
- August Robotics: Built Ready An article on construction and industrial applications of Lionel.
- BIMPRINTER: system description Total station, paint, laser engraving and operating modes.
- BIMPRINTER: workflow File preparation, registration and checking joins between work areas.
- COROSOLS: project description and pilot materials The stated layout approach and an on-site demonstration.
Materials checked on 29 October 2026. Specifications and offerings may change.