

Quadcopters build a 6 meter tower - learc83
http://www.idsc.ethz.ch/Research_DAndrea/fmec

======
easp
This would be awesome, if there was video.

Seriously, I want to see video of the assembly. Somewhere I saw video from the
same project of a swarm of the bots doing coordinated movements and it was
pretty cool and I've been waiting for video of this phase.

Edit: found some video <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvN9Ri1GmuY>

------
kapitalx
Link to the video: <http://vimeo.com/32962555>

~~~
orblivion
Not to sound entitled already, but why are they so slow? They're computers and
robots already, I'm wondering why they move to where they need to go and pause
for a second like that.

~~~
Retric
They are trying to get vary accurate location information. What's so neat
about this is they blocks are just sitting on top of each other it's the shape
that holds the structure together not mortar / pins etc.

------
jtchang
Damn that is cool. How long till I get my personal robotic flying slave to
fetch me a glass of water and do some laundry for me?

Admittedly I'd be a bit scared of the high powered blades and getting nicked
on accident.

~~~
marshallp
you can get them now - see diydrones

------
schwabacher
I think robotic construction will absolutely be the way forward, but I
wouldn't think that UAVs would be the most efficient way.

My guess is that autonomous retrofits of existing cranes and digging machinery
will do most of the heavy lifting. I don't have much domain knowledge on
construction though, does anyone disagree?

~~~
willyt
Heavy lifting on construction sites involves quite a lot of unknowns and is
safety critical. Some excavation could possibly be automated on probably on
greenfield sites. Depends very much where you are building. In the middle of
pretty much any European city for example, building the foundations almost
certainly couldn't be automated much more than it is all ready. This is
because you never know what you will find when you are digging. Example, how
would you do auto plague pit detection? There is a fair amount of automation
on sites already, piling rigs are semi-automatic and use relative GPS for
setting out and various monitoring systems to control the speed of drilling
and inflow of bentonite etc. Where automation will work best is when you have
an easily defined problem. I don't know why we still bolt steel framed
structures together, this is a problem that could be relatively easily
automated with robots to lift, hold and weld up the pieces.

------
timonoko
Of course in the future those bricks need not to be of any particular shape.
An army of autonomous robots study pile of rocks and central computer decides
which way those should be assembled to make solid interlocking structures and
airtight walls. This will lower building costs close to the level of the raw
material.

------
ciscoriordan
Imagine it on a﻿ smaller scale when they bring beer.

------
adammacleod
Wow. I can see all major building projects in 20-50 years being completed
using this technology. Amazing stuff.

------
10dpd
Awesome stuff - a time-lapse video would complete this as a work of art.

