Researchers at Imperial College in London say that robots could be the perfect tools to help build and maintain cities of the future. Using robots would reduce human risk while working on risky job sites, and allow monitoring alongside construction. Robots could collect data on the jobs workers are completing, helping to improve safety practices.
Dr. Mirko Kovac, director of the University’s Aerial Robotics Lab in the Department of Aeronautics, said that the cities of the future could be built and maintained by groups of “land-based and flying robots working to construct, assess, and repair the urban ecosystem of buildings and infrastructure.”
Before robots and humans work together on construction, though, drones are being put to work repairing existing buildings and infrastructure. This will allow researchers to create drones that respond to the needs of a building while working alongside humans. These advances would also help humans work in areas where work would be too difficult, or too slow. An example: building emergency shelters after a natural disaster, which would instead be 3D printed by flying drones.
Source: Imperial College London News
