The flying robots that build brick towers
The Swiss prove that a swarm of flying bee-like robots can build a 20-foot-high structure. What about a 2,000-foot skyscraper?

A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Thank you for signing up to TheWeek. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
The video: A Swiss team is betting that the future of construction lies not with men, but with machines — specifically, swarms of "robotic helicopter bees" that can build brick structures from a blueprint without input from humans. While at work, the robots "reserve air space on one of two 'freeways'" to prevent any mid-air collisions, and use a "specially designed gripper to hold and place the bricks." To demonstrate, ETH Zurich robotics expert Raffaello D'Andrea and a team of experimental architects are having four of their autonomous quadcopter flying robots build a complex 20-foot tower using 1,500 polystyrene bricks, in an exhibition in Orléans, France. (Watch a video below.) The circular structure is a 1:100 scale model of a "vertical village" designed to house 30,000 people.
The reaction: While an exciting step forward for robotics and architecture, this is "bad news for unemployed construction workers hoping for a bright future building next-generation skyscrapers," says John Roach at MSNBC. That is, if there really are 30,000 people willing to live in a 2,000-foot-tall "vertical village" built by flying robots. As unsettling as these robots may be, says Tim Hornyak at CNET News, the "gawkers" in France have "no apparent fear of the busy little cyber-creatures." Watch them at work:
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
Sign up to our 10 Things You Need to Know Today newsletter
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
-
'A teetering democracy of gerontocrats?'
Instant opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass Published
-
Every 'Saw' film, ranked
The Explainer The highs and lows of the gory horror soap opera
By Brendan Morrow Published
-
Why did the Hadrian’s Wall tree mean so much to us?
Talking Point Teenager arrested after Sycamore Gap tree felled overnight
By Felicity Capon Published