What? Robots build a tower near Paris?
NPR’s science blogger Robert Krulwich reports that helicopter robots in France have built a 20-foot tower out of foam bricks.
While the project was only a small-scale demonstration, it begs the question: Will the future construction workforce consist of robots directed by computer programmers?
Check out Krulwich’s blog here. Watch the robots in action below.
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January 11th, 2012 at 10:35 am
Someone would still have to build the helicopters, maintain them, and transport them. If they dropped the cost of construction we could see more interesting buildings, and perhaps an increased number of buildings. Of course you’ve still only placed the basic structure together – there’s still a whole lot of framing, mechanical, plumbing, electrical, etc. that would be very difficult for a robot to ever accomplish.
Overall, I’m fine with automated improvements. Things a robot can do are often the boring, repetative tasks that people don’t like doing anyway. They allow the same number of people to create more value, which is overall a good thing. Yes, short-term they can remove jobs. But in this case I’d be very surprised if we see more than a very tiny fraction of construction jobs replaced with automated helicopters over many decades.
January 20th, 2012 at 11:20 pm
Some clever points you got Matt.