AI that can follow a person seems like a simple enough task. It’s certainly a simple thing to ask a human to do, but what if people or objects get in the way of the robot following behind a person? How do you navigate an environment that’s in a constant state of change?

About a year ago, at a robotics conference TechCrunch held at UC Berkeley, AI startup founders explored solutions for common problems encountered when trying to automate construction projects. Dusty Robotics CEO Tessa Lau called attention to the challenge of moving machines in an unstructured environment filled with people.

“[The] 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 environment,” she said.

That’s why this week Piaggio Fast Forward, maker of the Gita personal robot, shared details about work it’s undertaking with industrial technology services provider Trimble using the Boston Dynamics API to create robots that follow construction workers. Pilot tests took place at an office building under construction in Colorado.

Robots can also travel in groups with one Spot Mini and two Gita robots in what Piaggio Fast Forward calls platooning. As part of the construction pilot, Piaggio is assessing human attitudes about how many robots following a human is too many.

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