Video: Flying robots, the builders of tomorrow .

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.


A team of scientists has demonstrated that a coordinated group of pre-programmed, autonomous robots can do the job of building workers, constructing a six meter high tower without any human intervention. Architects say this new technology paves the way for new methods of engineering buildings of the future. 




Is this the future of construction? A flying robot building a wall. The demonstration took place in Orleans in France in front of an audience. It's believed to be the first such installation built this way. The robots' developers were led by Professor Raffaelo D'Andrea of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. He says the multicopters use motion sensors to position themselves but still have to avoid each other while picking up and placing the bricks in exactly the right place. 


PROFESSOR RAFFAELO D'ANDREA, SWISS FEDERAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY ZURICH : "All this has to be done robustly, it's not just about making a video, you know, here we're doing a live performance in front of hundreds of people over a period of three days, the system has to work, it has to be such a technology that it's just transparent to you, you see those vehicles flying, it should seem like magic." The multicopters recharged while waiting to be tasked. They would then collect a foam brick - each weighing 500g - and place it exactly where instructed by a control programme known as "the foreman".


 "It takes off and it flies over to pick up a brick, it makes sure that other vehicles that are flying with bricks are not in its way so it stays out of the way until it feels that it can move into the space, similar than when you're driving a car and you want to go into the freeway, of course this is fully autonomous." The concept was devised by Swiss architects Gramazio & Kohler to develop a pioneering approach to design and construction. Mathias Kohler believes such a radical approach will allow designers more freedom.


 MATTHIAS KOHLER, ARCHITECT  "I think it changes the culture of how we think about building a building and does change the culture of designing architecture. That's why we are researching these technologies, we are not so much interested in automation or just more efficiency but also the kind of, let's say, poetic aspects that develop through those ways of building which you couldn't do in a traditional current building practice."


 And this is far from traditional. But whether it takes off as future standard practice, or is simply a flight of fancy remains to be seen.