How will robots improve construction?

Jon Lawson

We’ve seen the very recent progress robotics have made in healthcare and with the ability to help around the house, now Trimble and Boston Dynamics are uniting to take the next logical step and use robotics to actually help to create buildings.

Based on the later’s Spot platform, with its autonomous capability, the new venture will see it loaded with Trimble’s sensors to do the boring bits such as site surveying and scanning. 

Their first customer is US builder Mortenson, which has been experimenting with a robot armed with SPS986 GNSS sensor kit to record the condition of installations like solar farms. 

Martin Holmgren, general manager, Building Field Solutions at Trimble commented, “Robots will play a crucial role in automated construction workflows and can augment the human workforce by handling dirty, dull and dangerous tasks. Our experience with early adopters like Mortenson gave us visibility into the transformative potential of an integrated solution that seamlessly marries a world-class robot with construction-specific sensors and workflows. We're excited about this alliance and the potential to bring unprecedented improvements in safety, quality and productivity to our construction customers.”

The partners are hopeful that the robots will be available to go into service in spring next year. 

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