2024-12-22T01:43:24-05:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/137181160/begin-your-week-with-this-serene-video-of-two-drones-building-a-bridge-by-themselves Amelia Taylor-Hochberg 2015-09-21T12:56:00-04:00 >2015-09-21T17:19:59-04:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/b0/b0ysaft25t6xi9hw.png?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><p>These magnanimous drones, themselves having no need for a footbridge, build a suspension bridge for their human underlings in the <a href="http://www.FlyingMachineArena.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Flying Machine Arena</a> laboratory of ETH Zurich.</p><p></p><p>Developed as part of ongoing research in aerial construction, these two quadrocopters are capable of building the entire bridge by dispensing a motorized spool of Dyneema rope between two scaffolding surfaces, using a combination of knots, braids and wraps. When the drones are finished, the triumphant researchers walk from one end to the other.</p><p><em>Video credits:&nbsp;</em><em>Aerial construction is a collaboration between the Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control and Gramazio Kohler Research at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, 2015</em></p>