The flagship project is the 'In-situ Fabricator', an autonomous robot that is designed to build structures. It consists of a robotic arm on a mobile, track driven platform, powered by a diesel engine. It is fitted with a 2D scanning system which creates a 3D map of the visible area and also enables it to place building materials with millimetre accuracy.
The In-situ Fabricator isn't ready to be used on building sites just yet as, for the moment, it has to rescan its surroundings every time it moves to localise itself again.
"The system should rely solely on on-board sensing and computing," said Timothy Sandy, PhD, student at the Agile & Dexterous Robotics Lab, ETH Zurich. "In future the robot should be continuously aware of its position, even when in motion, and capable of steady, and accurate construction."
