Dusty Robotics

05/29/2026

A long time ago on a jobsite far, far away... automated layout only worked if you spoke English.

Those days are over.

Dusty's May update brings multi-lingual printing to FieldPrinter — now supporting languages used by 95% of the world's population, from Arabic to Chinese, Hebrew to Cyrillic, and more.

Dusty communicates the model to the field. No matter what language they speak.

Full release notes in the comments.

05/26/2026

Honolulu Builders just described Dusty better than we ever could.

"It's basically a robotic printer," said Subbu Venkataraman, president of Honolulu Builders. "When you have a slab that's poured, and you have the layout file that you upload into the printer, it drives around and it just prints on the slab where the walls should be."

Before Dusty, the same work took two workers and several weeks with a total station. With FieldPrinter, one operator finishes the layout in days.

According to Pacific Business News, Venkataraman emphasized that this kind of technology is not replacing humans on construction sites, especially as the industry faces a worker shortage crunch.

"You still have people running these tools," he said. "It's just more efficient and saves us time to deliver projects faster, so it's not necessarily replacing. Once the layout is done, you still have to do other things that are still done by our workers."

The Hawaii Carpenters Apprenticeship & Training Fund is already setting up training programs so carpenters can use the technology. "We want to get ahead of this technology... we want to make sure that our members are ready and equipped to use those robotic layouts," said HCATF Executive Director Edmund Aczon.

Full piece by Alexander Lugo at Pacific Business News in the comments — worth a read if you're watching how Hawaii's construction industry is adapting to automated layout.

05/20/2026

The answer was DUSTY all along. 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Oh, we meant the answer to yesterday’s .

But yeah... it could help on your jobsite too.

04/21/2026

Leading contractors across the country have built out full internal automated layout programs around Dusty. But most haven't — and given everything else competing for their time and resources, many never will. That's who Dusty's Certified Partner Program is built for.

Today we're announcing a network of independent layout and VDC service providers, fully certified in Dusty's platform. Layout service providers allow builders to leverage all the benefits of automated and multi-trade layout for their projects without having to buy Dusty directly or commit internal staff to robot operation.

And our VDC partners provide the BIM and CAD expertise needed to prep digital design files for successful layout in the field to builders who don't have internal VDC teams, or who need to augment those teams' capacity.

Our Certified Partner Program is launching with 10 inaugural partners across the U.S.: Blackboard Studio, Bouma Corporation, ENG, FrameTec, Leviat, NaRDil, New Vision, Oh Snap Layout, RG Construction, T**a 3D

Read the full press release: https://www.constructiondive.com/press-release/20260420-dusty-robotics-launches-certified-partner-program-to-scale-automated-layout/

Construction industry news, trends and jobs for building professionals who want mobile-friendly content.

04/09/2026

If you’re installing equipment in a factory that Bouma Corporation laid out, you’re connected to the design documentation on a whole different level. The information you need, like bolt torques or part numbers, are printed directly on the floor for you. And any other specs or live engineering docs are one scan of a QR code away.

That's because Bouma uses Dusty to embed QR codes in the layout that link directly to source-of-truth documentation. Scan, get the information, get back to installing.

"Think about anything that would help your installer. You want to give the most critical, highest-value information." — Tim Bauer, Manager of Construction Innovation at Bouma.

Bouma has run two dozen industrial layout projects with Dusty, from automotive suppliers, to data centers, and even rack manufacturing. Their process: the factory's engineers prep the file how they want it. "They own the content; we make sure it prints right."

Geometry gets the crew to the right spot. The QR codes tell them what to do when they get there.

04/07/2026

We don't normally pick sides.

But when one of them is coached by a guy named Dusty… we gotta weigh in.

Congratulations to Coach Dusty May and the University of Michigan on the 2026 NCAA National Championship — first title since 1989.

Go Blue! 〽️

(Yes, this image is AI-generated. We’re a company. Consider this a technical demonstration.)

03/31/2026

Deacon Construction, LLC delivered an $18M healthcare project in Sacramento 6 weeks early, with $2.5M returned to the owner and zero safety incidents.

The reason starts with a sequencing decision most contractors wouldn't have made.

With Dusty printing multi-trade layout from the coordinated model at the start of the job, Deacon provided their trade partners with an accurate, trustworthy source of truth so that they could install work confidently before framing went in. That gave ACCO Engineered Systems, the HVAC trade, the chance to go in first — working from an open floor on lifts instead of navigating a maze of framed exam rooms.

"Without framing in the way, it essentially turns the space into an ice rink for us," said Michael Gribble, ACCO Project Manager. "With a big open floor, our team moved around on lifts more than twice as fast." They weren't just moving twice as fast, they were installing work twice as fast. The team generated $1.5M in savings in the HVAC scope alone. The rest followed from the same principle: when the layout is trustworthy, every trade moves faster.

"ACCO doubled its production from a typical TI project. A good portion of that was because Dusty allowed the HVAC to get in there before the walls were installed." — Chris Helbock, Operations Manager, Deacon Construction.

Full case study in the comments.

03/24/2026

American factories are running the most advanced production lines in history. But they're laying out those lines with tools that haven't changed in decades. And that gap is costing manufacturers uptime.

Bouma Corporation saw that gap and built a service around it. The West Michigan contractor has completed roughly two dozen industrial layout jobs — automotive suppliers, data centers, rack manufacturers — using Dusty. They print baseplate positions, anchor bolt centers, torque specs, and even QR-code links to assembly instructions directly on factory floors.

At a rack manufacturing facility in Middlebury, Indiana, one Bouma layout enabled the crew to 3X their installation productivity. That's a big deal when facility downtime is costing hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars a day in lost production.

"They typically lay out one unit and install it in a day. I got three units laid out in a day, and they were able to install all three — because the information on the floor was clear enough that their guys could just set the unit down, put it where it needed to go, and move to the next one," said Tim Bauer, Bouma's Manager of Construction Innovation.

Full case study in the comments.

03/20/2026

Skanska USA coordinated two adjacent Sutter Health healthcare projects to LOD 400: every MEP system, every wall stud, every med gas rack and Steris boom in the OR — modeled to tight tolerances. The VDC work was done. Now they had to get it onto the slab.

“We couldn’t risk the design not getting successfully communicated to the field,” said Joe Weisman, Project Manager at Skanska.

Their answer: Multi-Trade Layout with Dusty. All trades, one coordinated pass, printed directly from the model. Across 80,000+ SF of complex healthcare construction.

“Dusty’s technology introduces a process that makes so much logical sense. Less rework. Predictable schedules, predictable costs.” — David Sharkey III, Sr. Project Manager

The numbers backed that up: 75% reduction in rework. 35% reduction in layout schedule.

Full case study in the comments.

03/10/2026

Just try pitching your field team on sticking with manual layout after watching this.

Here's everything manual layout has going for it:
- Sore backs
- Busted knees
- Measuring twice, and hoping that's enough
- Your foreman — and the whole floor — tied up for days
- Errors that don't surface until the wrong wall is already framed

And with Dusty?

One operator. One robot. Layout done before lunch — and done right.

Every trade on the job gets the full picture — not just their own scope of work, but what every other crew needs in the same space, printed from the same coordinated model. More information on the floor means fewer surprises during install. And fewer surprises is exactly why those second and third mobilizations go away — not just because Dusty is faster, but because it closes the information gap.

What's your current layout process costing you in time and bodies?