Home Smart 100 2014 Rocksolver Optimisation Software for Green Building (NSW) — 2014 SMART 100

Rocksolver Optimisation Software for Green Building (NSW) — 2014 SMART 100

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This SMART 100 profile and the information it contains is a duplication of content submitted by the applicant during the entry process. As a function of entry, applicants were required to declare that all details are factually correct, do not infringe on another’s intellectual property and are not unlawful, threatening, defamatory, invasive of privacy, obscene, or otherwise objectionable. Some profiles have been edited for reasons of space and clarity.

1. THE BEGINNING

This innovation came to life when…

The inventor, Malcolm Lambert, was building a house in Tasmania, partly out of the rock rubble he found on site, and felt the pain of building with irregular-shaped material. Having worked as a physicist in Antarctica, Malcolm also knew how smart software can be used to make sense of complex geophysical data. He thought, “Someone’s got to do this,” and chose to tackle a problem no one else is tackling and create a software application to make it easy to use a material which results in just 10% of the CO2 emissions compared to brick, concrete or cut stone.

2. WHAT & HOW

The purpose of this innovation is to…

Rocksolver solves the difficult jigsaw puzzle when building with natural, unprocessed rock, reducing the high cost of labour so cheap, durable, abundant material can be used to build houses or climate change adaptation infrastructure like agricultural terracing and seawalls.

It does this by…

Cheap digital cameras are used to digitise rock shapes, then Rocksolver’s original optimisation algorithm builds a virtual structure and delivers a layout plan. Beta testers have used our smart phone app to digitise 2D shapes and view the Rocksolver layout plan. Future versions will access data and deliver plans for 3D structures via wearable computing such as augmented reality glasses.

3. PURPOSE & BENEFITS

This innovation improves on what came before because…

Rocksolver is the first technology to be described as ‘augmented ability software’. It uses computational power to give each user the ability of a skilled artisan rather than using industrial power to transform raw quarried product into regular-shaped blocks. Rocksolver will get better and better and can be delivered anywhere to anyone with a smartphone and Internet connection.

Its various benefits to the customer/end-user include…

By reducing the cost of labour and by bringing natural stone construction into the digital age Rocksolver will help create a great-looking and sustainable built environment. Our algorithms will also optimise packing for manufacturing, packaging and transport.

4. COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

In the past, this problem was solved by…

For thousands of years people have been building houses, landscaping and infrastructure from unprocessed rock and they’ve all needed to solve the complex jigsaw puzzle in their head. Even now, the operators of GPS-enabled excavators placing 10-tonne boulders in breakwaters for modern port projects still perform the geometric optimisation in their heads.

Its predecessors/competitors include…

Competitors include individual stone masons building with irregular-shaped material and some of the world’s biggest cement companies (Cemex, Holcim, Boral, etc) who solve the problem by manufacturing regular-shaped material. Only we have patents on the Rocksolver method.

rocksolver_prototype_gui_and_paving

5. TARGET MARKET

It is made for…

Our first customer in 2013 was a landscape designer who simply wanted to efficiently pave an area for erosion control. Other potential customers have told us they love the look of natural stone landscaping but can’t afford the cost of skilled labour. Engineers and architects will use Rocksolver to design and test structures in a virtual world. Poorer communities will use Rocksolver to access unprocessed rock from local quarries at about 10% of the price compared to manufactured material like brick and concrete. The annual, global production of bricks for low-rise housing is worth approximately $100 billion.

It is available for sale through…

Customers can digitise 2D shapes using our free beta Android app available from Google Play, upload their data then receive a layout plan for a fee. It’s SaaS although future Rocksolver versions will also be sold by license.

Our marketing strategy is to…

During 2013 our free 3D digital models for CAD landscape design were being downloaded at a rate of 30,000 per month. Our strategy is to continue to promote this channel as a cheap way to inform customers globally. As Rocksolver gets better we are increasing our exposure in trade shows and cheap exposure via editorial in trade media.

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FINE PRINT
This SMART 100 profile and the information it contains is a duplication of content submitted by the applicant during the entry process. As a function of entry, applicants were required to declare that all details are factually correct, do not infringe on another’s intellectual property and are not unlawful, threatening, defamatory, invasive of privacy, obscene, or otherwise objectionable. Some profiles have been edited for reasons of space and clarity.