Construction, in the MOST traditional sense, can be exhausting, back-breaking work, but that may change thanks to Swiss engineers who’ve developed a brick-laying worker robot that can aid us puny humans to erect buildings.  Scientists at Zurich’s Swiss National Center of Competence in Research have created the In-situ Fabricator, a smart construction robot that uses a large arm to lay bricks in pre-programmed patterns, and its wheeled base to maneuver around construction sites without human help.

This Swiss version of Gutsman (since this reminds me of the Robot Master from Mega Man who’s intended use was for construction) has a 2D laser range finder, two onboard computers, sensors to be aware of its own location — so it won’t need any assistance being directed where to go. The robot can also generate 3D maps of the work site, allowing it to build different building designs that can adapt to any unforeseen circumstances on the construction site — which happens a LOT more than you think it would.

Supervising professor Jonas Buchli told Reuters:

“The construction site for us, as a robotics researcher, is an interesting environment. [It’s a useful setting because it’s] somewhere in between the completely planned and controlled environment of a factory or a lab floor, and the completely chaotic environment of outdoors.”

The team says the robots aren’t out to steal jobs from people; it’ll collaborate with humans and make things easier for us. So, it’s more of a colleague than a case of “dey dook dar jerbs!”

[Thanks ETA Zurich via Reuters]