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I DA U N I V E R S A L M ay -J u n e 2 0 2 0 43 construction sites last year as part of its transition from an R&D outfi t to a commercial company. Like Sunfl ower Labs' drones, Boston Dynamics' four-legged Spot with a robotic grasping arm acts as a sensor platform for 360-video surveys of construction projects. Capable of climbing stairs, opening doors and regaining its balance, the robot can also be equipped with other sensors to track progress and perform services that rely on computer vision. An event held by TechCrunch at the Univer- sity of California, Berkeley last month was one of the fi rst opportunities Bay Area roboti- cists have had to convene since the pandemic precipitated an impending recession. Investors focused on robotics for industrial or agricultural settings urged startups to raise money now if they could, to be careful about costs and to continue progress toward demonstrating product- market fi t. Speaking on a panel that included Built Robotics CEO Ready-Campbell, startups debated whether there will be a dominant platform for construc- tion robotics. Contrary to others on the panel, Boston Dynamics construction technologist Brian Ringley said he believes platforms will emerge to coordinate multiple machines on construction sites. "I think long-term there will be enough people in the markets that there will be more competi- tion, but ultimately it's the same way we use lots of different people and lots of machines on sites now to do these things. I do believe there will be multiple morpholo- gies on construction sites and it will be necessary to work together," Ringley said. Tessa Lau is cofounder and CEO of Dusty Robotics, a company that makes an automated building layout called FieldPrinter. She said there's a huge opportunity for automation and human labor augmentation in an industry that currently has very little automa- tion. Systems may emerge that are capable of doing the work of multiple trades or on-site activity management, but there can be nearly 80 different building trades involved in a construction site. Construction sites are by defi nition in various stages of fairly constant change. The dynamic nature of construction sites – where there is no set or static state like you might fi nd in a factory – presents another challenge. "I think the fl ip side is if you look at a typical construction site, it's chaos, and anyone with a robotics background who knows anything about robotics knows it's really hard to make robots work in that kind of unstructured environ- ment," she said. Forget the word "robot" One thing the TechCrunch panelists agreed on is that robots on construction sites won't succeed unless the people working alongside them want them to. To help ensure that happens, Lau suggested startups slap googly eyes on their robots, because people want to see things that are cute or beloved succeed. "Our customers are rightfully concerned that robots are going to take their jobs, and so we have to be careful about whether we are building a robot or...building a tool," Lau said. "And, in fact, we call our product a FieldPrinter. It's an appliance like a printer. It uses a lot of robotic technology – it uses sensors and path planning and AI and all the stuff that powers robotics today, but the branding and marketing is really around the functionality. Nobody wants to buy a robot; they want to solve a problem." Built Robotics CEO Ready- Campbell wholeheartedly agreed, arguing that even a thermostat can be considered a robot if the only requirement to meet that defi nition is that it's a machine capable of manipulating its environment. Last month, just before economic activity began to slow and shelter-in-place orders took effect, the International Union of Operating Engineers, which has over 400,000 members, established a multi-year training partnership with Built Robotics. Executives from Built Robotics say its systems operate primarily in rural areas that experience skilled labor shortages, but Ready- Campbell thinks it's still a good idea to drop the term "robot" because it scares people. Opposi- tion to construction robotics could also become an issue in areas that see high levels of unemployment. "That's how we position Built [Robotics] in the industry, because when people think of robots, it kind of triggers a bunch of scary thoughts. Some people think about The Terminator, some people think about losing jobs," he said. "It's an industry that really depends on using advanced machinery and advanced technology, and so we think that automation is just the next step in the automation of that industry."● https://venturebeat.com4/20 Boston Dynamics' Spot robot deployed for telemedicine A pack of 10 Spot Mini robots from Boston Dynamics haul a truck Robots continued from page 41

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