High above the field at the recent Super Bowl, a tiny robot was hanging in tension. Fixed on wires and capable of skyrocketing and nosediving in three dimensions, the robot is also a video camera called SkyCam, now a staple in sports broadcasting. A new iteration of this technology wants to become the staple of another industry, but instead of hauling a camera and capturing football kickoffs, this version will carry and stack bricks.

Developed by an interdisciplinary team of researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, CU-Brick is a cable-driven robot capable of building precise and intricate structures, piece by piece. Demonstration projects show the robot whizzing through the air and cleanly stacking bricks along the base of a wall. Its creators see the technology as a potential game-changing innovation for the construction industry, increasing the speed, accuracy, and safety of construction projects.

Created by Darwin Lau from the department of mechanical and automation engineering and Adam Fingrut from the school of architecture, CU-Brick moves just like one of those stadium cameras, with four anchors at the corners of the building site and connecting cables running overhead. Linked with a 3D model of the project, the robot picks up a brick in one place and sets it down in another until the structure is complete.

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