Flying Robots Will Build 'Megastructure' For Art Installation (VIDEO)

The time is fast approaching when artists who have an actual hand in the creation of their work may be obsolete. Who's going to do the work? Not interns, but robots.

In the future, it is possible that installation artists and sculptors will be able to enlist the help of robots to complete complex works of art. Thankfully, they won't have the ego to ask for credit.

Swiss architects Gramazio & Kohler and autonomous systems wizard Raffaello d'Andrea have teamed up to head a truly innovative sculpture experience.

"Flight Assembled Architecture" will be the first installation built by flying machines, called quadcopters. The quadcopters will operate on a pre-programmed flight path to construct the installation.

A fleet of small flying robots will build a twisting tower of 1,500 polystyrene foam bricks that will reach a height of 20 feet. Showing at the FRAC Centre in Orleans, France from December 2nd, 2011 to February 19th, 2012, the show will be an astounding feat in spatial articulation for artificial intelligence.

While assembling the structure, if a quadcopter should veer too close to another copter a precision fleet management program will kick in to prevent a collision that could topple the sculpture.

After the initial construction, the goal is for the flying bots to construct a yet-to-be-unveiled "megastructure." We can't wait to see what that will look like! Check out a video of the quadcopters in flight below.

Comments

[TheBlueCoyote]

02:52 AM on 12/01/2011

Flying Robots Learn to Make Art Instead of War. Fun.

[socialtalker]

07:17 PM on 11/30/2011

what a bunch of wet blankets and scare-dy cats! i love it. believe it or not, i have lately been thinkin about building a robot to help me with my craft business. nothing that flies, but something with multiple arms that can help me work on a large canvas.

[littlebigcheese]

06:54 PM on 11/30/2011

of the million and one uses for these and other such devices this is likely the most benign.

many of the rest will be in aid of much darker motivations.

[arizonahd]

07:02 PM on 11/30/2011

an automatic burrito machine?

[you live in fantasy land]

06:50 PM on 11/30/2011

More unemployment in the construction industry soon to come

[DKaufman22]

07:05 PM on 11/30/2011

I thought the same thing when I first saw this video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W18Z3UnnS_0

[Matt1964]

06:28 PM on 11/30/2011

These devices do not use carbon fuel. They will never last.

[Jaime01]

06:24 PM on 11/30/2011

When I was a kid I had blocks of wood. Now kids gets robotic quadracopters to play with.

[EsotericMystic]

06:12 PM on 11/30/2011

Building now will be modified later to destroy - if necessary.

[Nat Irvin]

06:07 PM on 11/30/2011

very interesting clip...early indicator of what may be a common utility of the future...maybe art and maybe not..

[Aroddo]

05:50 PM on 11/30/2011

so that's how the death by america will look in the coming wars.
which one is scheduled next?

[Economike]

05:46 PM on 11/30/2011

These are toys, not art.....

[CTDFalconer]

06:56 PM on 11/30/2011

Who are you to say what is art?

[Economike]

07:56 PM on 11/30/2011

right.......

[Nick SketchCat Wilson]

05:24 PM on 11/30/2011

"The time is fast approaching when artists who have an actual hand in the creation of their work may be obsolete." Art is anything created or modified by a human and declared as such. Robots can't do it on their own.

[salamanca1]

06:21 PM on 11/30/2011

Yup, just another stupid piece of writing.

[CTDFalconer]

06:57 PM on 11/30/2011

Indeed. The art lies in the concept. These robots are just tools.

[grittyreboot]

05:01 PM on 11/30/2011

oh that freaks me the f*** out for no particular reason.

[taqo]

05:40 PM on 11/30/2011

consider me ftfo as well.

[Astrazoic]

04:44 PM on 11/30/2011

Fascinating. This sort of thing is is a glimpse of the developmental process as we figure out how to use robots for various applications.

[JohnInDallas]

04:40 PM on 11/30/2011

This is really cool fun!

[Ldyandrea]

04:35 PM on 11/30/2011

Okay, that's pretty cool.