MIT's Mediated Matter Group has developed a construction robot that winds fiberglass filament into large structures. The research studio, led by Neri Oxman, has dubbed the little machines, Fiberbots, and hopes they can one-day be used to build complicated, large-scale structures. 

The way it works is that each Fiberbot is connected to a tank containing fiber and resin. The winding arm sucks the mixture, spins it around the Fiberbot's body, and then uses ultra-violet light to solidify the grown portion. Once hardened, the Fiberbot uses its base to climb up the hardened segment where it then repeats the process. The result is an organically shaped, three-dimensional structure that can climb as high as 15 feet tall. 

The robots can angle themselves and change directions in order to complete complex shapes. Mediated Matter also developed a complimenting design system that allows designers to create parameters that govern its shape without having to provide commands for each robot by hand.

Using Wi-Fi signals, the fully autonomous bots communicate with one another to avoid collision. Much like ants cooperating to rapidly build structures much larger than themselves, swarm robotics can be used to build complex structures with any eye for optimization. Swarm sensing and actuation also allows the system to become more responsive and adaptive to environmental conditions, demonstrating the potential of enabling this technology in extreme situations and far-reaching environments.