How would you react if you were told that flying robots have actually built a 20-foot-tall tower at a museum in France. This is not a scene from a sci-fi film, but the reality. The constructed tower is 20 feet tall, and can house 30,000 people.
Called the "Flight Assembled Architecture", this was demonstrated at the FRAC Center Orleans, and is the work of Zurich robot maker Rafaello D’Andrea.
All an architect has to do is draw up a blueprint for a building, and computers and robots complete the task. This includes understanding the blueprint and controlling the flight of the flying robots. To fly safely, the robots reserve airspace so that only one flying vehicle flies in a particular flight path. This avoids collisions. The tower (once constructed) is also considered as reserved airspace – to avoid collisions with the tower itself. Each flying root uses three pins to puncture, hold, and carry the bricks while a motion capture system on the ceiling directs where the foam bricks have to be placed.
The possibilities are bright. Think of a village devastated by earthquakes or any such natural or man made disaster where people have to be quickly provided shelter. These flying robots could provide the necessary shelter much quicker than anybody can do.
To watch the flying robots in action, see the video below:
