by: Brian Costa
You may be familiar with Spot, the friendly yellow dog-esque robot developed by Boston Dynamics. Originally introduced to the public in mid 2016, Spot has been deployed in commercial activities for companies such as SpaceX and Skarv. So, what does this have to do with construction? In October of 2021, Boston Dynamics announced a collaboration with Zepth (a construction industry solution provider) to combine Spot’s data collection capabilities with Zepth’s proprietary data insight technology to help increase productivity, efficiency and collaboration through a project’s lifespan.
Spot isn’t the only robotic resource finding its way onto local job sites. C3 Robotics Lab has developed a technology dubbed “CU Brick” which could quite literally lay the new foundation for a human and AI coinhabited work site. Suspended by a series of wires, the lightweight bot can zoom around a pre-defined space, picking up bricks from one area, and setting them precisely into place to build structurally sound walls.
3D concrete printers, demolition robots, surveying drones and plenty more silicon driven co-workers have helped companies stay a step ahead for years. So, is it time to set your tools down and look for a new gig? Of course not.
Although the future of construction may make more use of these helpful, efficiency-boosting bots, they simply can’t perform the variety of tasks that us humans can. Robots are usually very good at the 1 or 2 things they were designed for, but humans are designed to adapt and overcome an ever-changing environment, and that’s what will keep us running the show. For now anyway.
