ETH Zurich researchers have developed an innovative method to construct dry stone walls using an autonomous excavator. Traditionally, dry stone wall construction has required significant manual labor, but this new approach utilizes an excavator called HEAP to build walls that are six meters high and sixty-five meters long. The excavator uses sensors to map the construction site and locate suitable building blocks and stones. It can then pick up and place these stones in the desired location with the help of specifically designed tools and machine vision approaches. The autonomous machine can place 20 to 30 stones in a single consignment, making the process highly efficient. This groundbreaking application was developed as part of the National Centre of Competence in Research for Digital Fabrication.
https://ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2023/11/autonomous-excavator-constructs-a-six-metre-high-dry-stone-wall.html